The Great Adventure: The Legend of Chaos
by Jason de L'Epee
Summary: An adapt of Sonic Adventure. Sonic is sent on furlough to hunt down the reason behind Dr. Robotnik's disappearance from Robotropolis, but the morning before he reaches Sapphire City, a mysterious creature destroys the Master Emerald from the inside. As th
1. Chapter 1

**THE GREAT ADVENTURE: THE LEGEND OF CHAOS**

_Written by Jason de L'Épée_

Original concept and the game from which this comes Sonic Adventure, copyright to Sega Productions ©2000. Used with permission. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and other original game characters are copyrighted by Sega, DiC, SonicTeam, Sonic Project, and the Archie Comic Corporation.  
Other additional characters are copyrighted ©2004, 2005 by Jason de L'Épée.  
Any unauthorized reproduction of this fanfiction document without the permission of the author or the community is strictly prohibited and may follow with legal action if necessary. This document may be freely distributed over the Web if and only if the copyrights and following material remain unchanged and without flaw.

FOREWORD:

It is no secret to whoever visited the community of that I do not follow the storylines of the Archie Comics and shows such as The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Sat-AM, Sonic Underground and the more recent Sonic X, although I do take certain elements from these shows.

I had never planned to do an adapt of maybe the greatest 3D Sonic game in the video game industry, but when I have played the original game, I was intrigued by the unique storyline and good game-play. Therefore, I have taken it on myself to do the massive undertaking of the adapting of Sonic Adventure. I hope you enjoy my view of this great game.

This is Phase 2 of my "Great Adventure Series," for Phase 1 was worth being burned, stabbed, whipped and thrown into the toilet.

CHAPTER 1: Departure

Saddle up your horses,  
We got a trail to blaze,  
Through the wide blue yonder,  
Through God's amazing grace…

"The Great Adventure": Steven Curtis Chapman--©1992

Sonic stood idle on one foot near the window, the setting sun glaring down her hot glow onto his stern face. Sonic appeared not to mind the hot glare of the sun in the July weather, but looked impatient as he tapped his foot rapidly.

This not clearing his mind, he took to pacing in the mist of the community hut where supper was being prepared. Antoine D'Coolette, a French-speaking coyote, was busy testing every dish in the back kitchen, and if one stood near the door of the kitchen, he could hear his constant mumbling of what's wrong with the mousse, or whether the baguettes were too hard or had too much texture, and so on.

Sonic did not really want to have a constant report on food, for that just made him hungry and did not help his current state. Being an hour before the dishes would be prepared; Sonic took off out the door at a run, nearly forgetting to open the door.

As he took off leaving nothing but a blue blur, he hoped to counter the building energy.

As he took out his frustration on the green turf of the Great Forest, some other creatures were finding their own ways to pass the idle time: the Princess, Sally Acorn, a chipmunk, was sitting against a tree, reading a large novel. A small droopy-eared rabbit, Cream, accompanied by a small creature with an onion-shaped head, Cheese, was playing near a small stream.

The last one that I will discuss was a two-tailed, pre-adolescent fox, Miles Prower, also known as "Tails." Instead of relaxation in the toasty weather of the mid-summer evening, he chose to spend his energy inside a large garage, which was filled with many a gadget and tool. He was taking his energy on what looked like a biplane, but not like a biplane of the early days of the beginning of flight mechanics, but more glorified with updates. The red biplane was known as the Tornado.

As Tails was working on the engine compartment of the plane, a rolling boom shook every timber and every leaf of the forest, and a blue blur split the air with a whoosh. Cream and Cheese looked up from their levity, and watched the dust cloud disturbed by the disturbance of the blur; settle back to the earth, but not for long.

"Here he comes again…" Cheese observed.

Whoosh! The blur raced by again.

"Wow! Mr. Sonic is going nuts," Cream said innocently.

Princess Sally was not any more disturbed then before the blur raced by ever again and again, but turned a page as if nothing is happening.

Whoosh! It raced by again. Cream's ears flapped along with the wind caused by the disturbance.

The blur raced back again, but stopped on a dime not five feet from Sally's feet, and Sonic stood ad scratched his head at Sally's stillness.

"How do you just sit there?" Sonic blurted out.

Sally, not lifting an eye from her book, replied, "I find sitting and reading a novel more relaxing then tearing up pavement, such as someone who I will remain nameless."

Sonic crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, as if waiting for a topic of conversation. Sally saying nothing else, he asked, "Well, what are you reading anyway?"

"A novel Antoine recommended to me: Faust. It's about a sad man who has sold his life to a devilish fiend to restore his childhood."

"Sounds like some cheesy TV show to me."

Cream spoke next. "What's the matter, Mr. Sonic? Why are you running around so fast?"

Sonic shifted weight on his foot, switching back and forth to each foot, replied with a sigh, "I'm just bored! It's been almost three years since any of us had seen Old 'Buttnik and his tin-bucket, Mecha. I was hoping that some old-fashioned trouble would arise and take him out."

Sonic threw himself onto the ground, secretly relieved to share his trouble to someone, even if it was a 5-year old rabbit.

Sally, putting a bookmark into her book, set the book aside and took to talking with Sonic. "Have you checked out Robotropolis?"

"That's the worst part! I've been going back and forth to that pathetic excuse of a city to see what 'Buttnik's been up to, but every time I go there, the streets are deserted, the bots are nowhere to be seen, and that Egg House or whatever he calls that thing is empty, contents gone! Robotnik is gone!"

Sally looked at Sonic as if he just turned pink. Robotnik is gone? But where is he now? Sally felt a chill despite the warm evening air; Robotnik must be up to something to just move off to a new place.

"I was thinking that Robotropolis now has no more resources that 'Buttnik needs to continue pestering us, so he's now where resources are more abundant."

Sally got up and marched to her hut, where she kept maps and her computer, Nicole: National Interaction Communicator and Online Link-Interactive Entity. Sonic followed Sally into the hut.

When Sonic had entered the hut, Sally had already unrolled a map of the southern part of West Möbius, which bordered the Acornian Sea, a sub-body of water of the Great Ocean. Near the southern part of the map, sat a large bay, Sapphire Bay, where two large cities sat on each end, divided by a large forest and a small mountain range. The most southern of these cities was Santiago City, the largest of the two, for it sat near a delta of a large river and was a large commercial center. The northern one was Sapphire City, the political capital of West Möbius.

Sonic read some facts on Sapphire City, which being the capital of the human colonies, was more populous with humans, commonly known as "Overlanders" to Möbians.

"Population: 75,254, mostly humans. Warm climate, and wonderful tourist attraction sites, such as the nearby Mystic Ruins. Möbians welcome…" Sonic read the rest of the facts robotically as if he didn't care, for they did mostly consist of contact information and a list of attractions.

"What are you thinking, Sonic?"

"Since Robotnik would likely target a political city where all the politicians reside, I'm thinking that he will maybe strike the human colonies where he could overthrow the government. We should watch him."

Sally pondered this. Sonic had a point.

"I was wondering if I could take Tails and go down to Sapphire City or Santiago City and scope the places out and maybe have some fun while down there."

Sally looked into Sonic's emerald-green eyes. "All right, I'll give you furlough for two weeks."

Sonic nodded and walked out, followed by Sally. Sonic made it into the center of the village where sat the community hut, where he stopped.

"What's the matter, Sonic?"

"I was thinking about Robotnik turning over a new lead. Now that he's outside our normal watch boundaries, it'll be harder to quickly counteract his plans."

Sally lowered her head. What seemed easy now was now getting hard. They'll have to increase their efforts and contacts.

This was interrupted by a tremendous crash from the kitchen, followed by a continual shouting from Antoine, which Sonic was glad he couldn't understand. Sally, giggling as she ran inside to help Antoine, and Sonic, deciding not to get involved, walked to the garage where Tails was working on the Tornado.

"Tails?" Sonic shouted into the dark garage.

Sonic squinted into the darkness and found a pair of fox tails sticking out near the nose section of the biplane. Sonic then noticed that the plane was being repainted partially, for instead of the red and yellow color he was used to, it was turning into a light blue.

"Tails?"

"Yeah?" The young fox responded, not moving from his work.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"Just some modifications." Tails features, besides his face, were slightly illuminated by a flash of sparks where he was using a torch to seal a combustion chamber near the engine. "What was that noise?"

"Oh, just Ant being attacked by a new recipe of his," Sonic said with a smirk. "Well, besides that, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?" Tails said, not moving any.

"I'm going down to Sapphire City for about two weeks. Wanna come?"

"No thanks; I got work to do. Why down there?"

Sonic's spines drooped and his eyes widened in shock and disappointment. "You don't wanna come? I thought--I--" Sonic was a loss for words. His heart was nearly dashed at the fact that his sidekick and friend was growing up. "I was…just going down there…" Sonic swallowed the rock in his throat, "for a furlough." Sonic tried to not sound as dejected as he did, but he couldn't help it.

If Tails noticed his friend's sadness, he didn't let on. This didn't help Sonic any.

"Are you sure you don't wanna come?"

"Yes."

Sonic winced.

"I got to finish this plane, or it'll never get done. I hope you have fun!"

Sonic paused a moment, and turned to his hut. He didn't feel like eating, for he lost his appetite.

- - - - -

The night was dark, but a blanket of stars shown ahead. There was no moon, but it mattered not to the Guardian of Angel Island, Knuckles the Echidna.

He sat on the steps on a pyramid, surrounded by seven broken pillars. In the center of the pyramid sat the Master Emerald. Instead of its normal home, deep in the caverns of the Hidden Palace, Knuckles had moved it to where it sits now, the old pyramid.

Now the reason why it was so far from its normal home, was the following: One day, Charmy the Bee of the Chaotix was enjoying a nice early morning three days before, when he flew over the Marble Gardens, and found a pyramid. This would've been no big deal, but on closer examination, the center of the pyramid had a cone-shaped hole, point down. He returned back to Chaotix Central, found Knuckles and relayed what he saw.

Knuckles had this in his mind for a time, and that afternoon, hiked out to the Gardens and found the pyramid. It sat on a piece of land, where on three sides lay a gorge. The Marble Gardens sat near the edge of the Island, and the pyramid sat on a rise, like an island in an ocean of air.

Knuckles studied the pyramid and the hole even more so. He knew that the Master Emerald was not always hidden underground. It did sit in the Marble Gardens over two millennia ago, during the golden age of the Echidnas. Marble Gardens was the capital of the Echidnaen Tribe of Angel Island, but some great disaster had relocated the Master Emerald underground and the Echidnas had all but disappeared. The reason was not known to Knuckles.

Just for curiosity, Knuckles and the Chaotix had moved, with great effort, the Master Emerald to the pyramid, via teleports. When the Master Emerald was put into the hole, it fit perfectly, and it glimmered like a bright green, as if it was happy.

Knuckles backed up and looked at the Master Emerald in its old base. It looked historic: The Master Emerald, sitting on the stone pyramid, out in the open.

That therefore, caused Knuckles some alarm. The Master Emerald looked so vulnerable, out in the open and so open to attack.

With that in mind, Knuckles elected to stay in the gardens and watch over the Master for four days, since the Chaotix put so much effort to put the Master Emerald there, Knuckles didn't want to make their day worth nothing.

That was the situation where the night found Knuckles, half-sleeping on the steps of the pyramid, not ten feet from the large gem.

It was just before dawn, when disaster reeled its harmful head.

Knuckles snapped awake to the sound of an explosion, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

"What the--?" Knuckles spun around and met eye-to-eye to the weirdest thing he had ever seen.

It was large humanoid creature, with large, pupil-less eyes, and on the back of the head grew two fin-like spines. The center of the head glowed with a yellowish glow around a blob of matter, which Knuckles took as the brain.

"Who…or what are you?" Knuckles then noticed that something was amiss. Where was the Master Emerald?

Then he saw it. The Master Emerald was gone, broken to pieces! Knuckles' surprise turned to rage. "Did you do that?" Knuckles pointed to the broken heap of green crystal glass, but he didn't wait for an answer. "Oh, I'll get you for that!"

Knuckles swung a fist forward that could puncture a nice hole into a stone wall, but the creature jumped at the last second, and Knuckles attack hit only air. Knuckles looked up for the creature, but was amazed for the creature since it seemed to disappear into thin air!

That thought disappeared as a resounding thud rang right behind him, and naturally he spun around, only to see a large watery fist slap him right into the chest!

Wham! He was sent flying off the top platform and rolled down the stone steps, and stopped five feet from the bottom of the steps. Bruised, hurting, and raging like a volcano, he ran back up the steps, five at a time.

"Hey! Foul play! I'll pulverize you, you cheater!" Knuckles reached the top of the pyramid, just in time to see the creature melt in between the stones.

"Hey! Where you going? Come back here!" Knuckles stared at the spot where that creature had melted away. Taking his glove off, he touched the stone. It was wet, but had a feeling like vegetable oil: greasy, and just a hair sticky.

"Whoa, that is strange. I've never seen anything like it." Knuckles' heart froze as he felt the whole Island shake, and groaned. "Oh, no! The Supers aren't gonna hold up the Island for long."

Knuckles felt the strange sensation of sinking, as if he was in a large elevator. Then, he had a terrible mental picture of the Floating Island crashing into land, and splintering to pieces. They were over sea he knew well before the explosion of the Master Emerald, so the Island may have drifted one mile or less, maybe even over land.

Instinctively, he picked up whatever was left of the Master Emerald, which was only the bottom quarter, and held it out at an angle. The island shifted, but still sank, faster then Knuckles would have wanted it to be.

"C'mon! All I need is a mile! C'mon, baby, MOVE!"

The Island groaned as the large island was torn by the two forces of gravity and the Master Emerald's power. Knuckles didn't admit to anyone, but he was genuinely afraid, wet in his own sweat.

Within one minute, the island had struck the earth. Knuckles was thrown of his feet from the impact. He lay grasping the ground, waiting for the very earth beneath his feet to crack up and waiting for his death to come.

It never came. Knuckles lay on the top of the pyramid, but looked up and around. He looked around the gardens, and was relieved that the Island was still intact. Then he noticed a giant rolling wave rolling out into the distance in the corner of his eye. They landed in the ocean. Then he gazed all around the horizon, and he noticed the distant mountain range for the first time. But it wasn't distant! It was so close! Then, he noticed the distance between the cliffs of the nearby land. The edge of Angel Island was not fifty feet from the coast!

Knuckles froze as he noticed the short distance between the Island and the mainland. He must have just cleared the coast of the mainland the previous second before impact. That was too close.

- - - - -

Deep in the jungle sat a lowly hut with no walls and a roof made of palm leaves. The hut sat in the middle of a small pond, which the water there of flowed out in two creeks. Underneath this green, natural roof laid a very large cat: He, if standing, was seven feet tall, and was covered with purple fur, except his front side, which was a dirty white. This cat was lying on a bed with no mattress, pillow or blanket, for being very overweight gave him the warmth and comfort one would need.

He did not live alone for he had a pet (friend if you asked him): a large, green frog, which was sleeping between the legs of the big cat.

This was the atmosphere when the large frog was awakened by a resounding crash in the distance, like a distant explosion from testing grounds. The frog hopped a short way in the direction of the sound, but stopped dead as the water three feet in front of him suddenly piled up on itself. The frog never seen anything like this and didn't know whether to go to it, or run.

The water seemed to make that decision for him, for suddenly it flowed to him and solidified into a three-fingered hand, which grabbed the frog. The frog naturally protested, and thrashed about, but couldn't get out of the grip of the creature. Suddenly, a strange eerie glow came from the frog and suddenly, grew a tail, not exactly like a tadpole's, but long, with a spear point.

The creature let go of the frog, and left as quickly as it came, leaving the frog bewildered.

Then, a few minutes later, the large cat, whose name was Big respectively, stirred in his sleep. Then he sat up, and blinked in the increasing sunlight. Wiping the sleep from his heavy, yellow eyes, he looked around at the slowly growing light in the east. Then he noticed someone was missing.

"Huh? Froggy? Where are you?"

He looked around in bewilderment for the frog. At last, after a frantic search, he found the frog, or Froggy if you will, sitting on the far bank to the west.

"Froggy? You're looking a little weird, buddy."

Being not the brightest of cats, he didn't notice at first the odd presence of the tail, although he did notice that there was something different about his friend.

Froggy neither croaked nor did anything a frog normally did. What he did do though was hop up quickly behind Big and hop up to a small table-like stand, much like a nightstand. On top of that rested a large, yellow gem, which Froggy hopped up to, opened his mouth, and swallowed the gem.

Big turned around after he realized that Froggy had run behind him; he was just in time to see the golden gem pop into Froggy's mouth, and down its gullet.

"Hey! What are you doing? You ate my lucky charm!" Big protested.

Froggy then hopped off the nightstand, and hopped down one of the many trails in the jungle, and disappeared into the undergrowth.

"Where are you going? What's wrong?"

Big was slightly confused and a little devastated at Froggy's sudden departure. Big grabbed the first fishing pole from a rack of three near his bed, selected several lures and ran off after Froggy.

"Don't worry, Froggy! I'm coming!"

Chapter 2: The First Encounter with the God of Destruction

Sonic had spent the night in his hut and at first light; he woke up, stared dejectedly at Tails sleeping in the bunk above his own, and took off out the door, not wanting to wake his friend. He ran a fast sprint until well out of hearing of the village, and when he was out of range, he picked up the pace, and his strides became a blur. Not long after he accelerated, he felt a slight drag. He knew he was close; just a little more…

Boom! A resounding crash shook the landscape as he broke the sound barrier and picked up speed from the force of the break. Forgetting his letdown the night before, he laughed into the wind as he was doing the reason why he bore his name.

After fifteen minutes from the start of his run back in Knothole, he breached into a maze of buildings and traffic. Halting so as not to cause a wreck, he took in his surroundings.

"This must be Sapphire City. Not bad for a city full of Overlanders," Sonic muttered.

He walked along in the crowded traffic. His nature for being claustrophobic soon began to surface as the crowds began to get denser.

"Oh, geez! Why have all these people suddenly decided to walk the streets?" Sonic looked slightly irked. Little did he know that he got caught in the morning rush where people were emerging from the coffee shops and heading for work, much to Sonic's dismay.

"Dang all this traffic! Will it ever end?" Sonic's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden growling from his stomach. He kicked himself mentally, for he had forgotten his breakfast!

As if on cue, he spotted a breakfast buffet just up the street. Not giving it a second thought, he walked through the door.

The reaction was not as peaceful as Sonic has hoped. Each head turned to the sound of the bell above the door, and noticed the short, blue Möbian with head-spines walk through the door.

Sonic dreaded every stare that came from the crowd. Must they stare at him just because he was a hedgehog, or not even their race?

Feeling every stare from every person, he stalked up to the front counter where a black waitress with black, curled hair was cleaning the counter.

Setting one elbow on the counter, he attracted the attention of the waitress.

She replied thus, "Can I help you, hun?"

Sonic's nostrils were infiltrated with overused frying grease and the fumes of a dirty grill. "Uh, I'd like to order the cheese omelet platter, hold the bacon and put sausage if you don't mind, and I'd like an orange juice with that, k?"

The waitress had been scribbling the order, rolling her eyes at the special order, and suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry, honey. We have run out of orange juice until tomorrow, can I interest you in some milk?"

"Is it fat free?"

"One percent."

Sonic sighed. "I guess."

The waitress scribbled a little more on the order receipt and turned. "Hey, Hal? Better burn up some sausage, and get some eggs on that grill of yours! Oh, and we need a glass of moo juice!"

Sonic began to wonder if coming here was a good idea or not, then he felt in his body a certain need.

"Uh, miss? Where are the bathrooms here? I never saw them."

She put down her book of receipts and pointed to a distant sign near a opening in the wall. "You see that sign that says 'R-E-S-T-R-O-O-M?'" she paused. "Uh, huh. Dat's where it is!"

Sonic gave a look between a cross of insult and "weirded" out. "Uh, thank you. That was helpful," he mumbled sarcastically.

Sonic walked to the restrooms as a commotion in the back room said to Sonic that he shouldn't eat here…again.

After his "chat with John," he went to a table, which seemed to have been ignored a good cleaning for what Sonic guessed to be three weeks, which sat adjacent to the window that faced the street. He took to scanning the distant skyline of Sapphire City to pass the wait. He noticed a string of road wrapping around the buildings like a ribbon around pillars. What is that?

After a good twenty minutes of waiting, he received his food and milk. The breakfast was not as bad as he would've thought: the sausage was slightly singed, the omelet was…all right, and the milk gave a slight, yet non-desirable aftertaste; but overall, not too bad.

After leaving some money at the table, he left the door and went back to walking down the sidewalks, which were less consisted of people as the rush began to slacken.

After a good fifteen minutes of walking down the sidewalk, he began to wonder about lodging. The idea of sleeping in a dumpster or in a dark alleyway did not exactly appeal to him, so he thought to find a hotel. He took a modest amount of cash that had been building slowly in a bank in another city not fifty miles away.

He stopped the first pedestrian that he ran into. "Hey, excuse me, pal. Where would be a good hotel be?"

The pedestrian, a man in his twenties, wearing a business suit, responded, "Well, most of them are further into the city," the man said, rubbing his cleft, scrubby chin.

"I'm hoping for a nice one," Sonic said, thinking of his breakfast experience.

"Well, in that case, I would recommend the Sunset Resort in Station Square."

"Where's Station Square?"

"Oh, that's the easy part: Keep walking down this street for a time, and if you start smelling salt water, you're getting close. Not too far from that, you'll find a train station. Sunset Resort is diagonal to that. Good luck, friend."

Sonic put two fingers to his head and flashed a peace sign back to him. "Thanks."

Sonic began walking down the street again. Not too long after, he smelt something new: something wet, but had a smell of dryness at the same time. It was the smell of sea salt: while drenched in water, salt remains dry.

"Wow, I never smelled anything like that; smells…nice in a way."

It wasn't long after Sonic smelt the sea salt that he heard a rumbling sound overhead. Naturally, he looked up. An overhead railroad with a glass tunnel stretched over the buildings, and a train rumbled through the tunnel.

"Ah, a railroad." Sonic looked over from where the train had come from. It passed over a large brown-brick building where large stairs swirled around out of view.

"Now I know where the train station may be, but where is it really?" His eyes settled on the stairs again. "Hmm, I wonder where those go."

Curiosity took over them and he climbed the steps. It was about 25 steps that were all different lengths, but all in all, he came to the top of the steps.

He saw immediately two flights of stairs that faced towards each other. Opposite the stairs was a large door, where sat beside that was a small booth, where above the window displayed a sign with prices.

"The train station! Now that's convenient." Sonic walked up to the booth. "Hey, excuse me? Is Station Square through those doors?"

The clerk there replied, "Well, half of it."

Sonic looked inquisitive.

"Well, half of it, where City Hall and Twinkle Park is, is through those doors, yes; while the other half is down those stairs behind you."

Sonic looked back at the steps. You're saying that I was in Station Square all along? Sonic thought to himself. "Well, which way is the way to Sunset Resort?"

The clerk put a hand to her mouth as if trying to prevent a laugh. "Well, it depends on where you want to get in. The back door is down those stairs, while the front is through the doors."

Sonic looked both ways. Geez, I have a lot to learn about Sapphire City. "Well, thanks. I'll go through the doors since I'm here."

Sonic went through the doors and looked into Station Square. It wasn't much of a square, since it was really split into three. One part was beyond the bend where City Hall was located; the other part was before him where Twinkle Park, the front door of the Sunset Resort, and a building which looked a lot like a warehouse. A warehouse, in the middle of Station Square?

The third part was known as Casino Square, for the section was a lot like a square with only one outlet, where from which Sonic had stumbled upon Station Square.

Sonic's first thought was to book a room in Sunset Resort. Thankfully he had the Möbian currency that he had changed to the currency of the human colonies: Möbiads to dollars. He got a room on the fifth floor facing the front, giving him a good view.

Once Sonic had settled in, he decided to explore the Square. (Whether he was searching for 'Buttnik's robots or on his own recreation is not clear) He found City Hall and a small burger place.

Not finding anything, he just made his way back to the hotel. When he had gotten inside, he needed to find something to spend time on. He found the manager at the front desk.

"Hey, is there anything to do here?"

"Well…" The manager thought a second. "There are the chao gardens."

"The what gardens?"

"Chao; you've never heard of them?"

Sonic shook his head, uncertain where he should have heard of them.

"Go through one of the elevators, and go to the top floor. Hope you have an empty schedule."

The manager went into a back room to do paperwork, leaving a rather curious Sonic. Giving into his curiosity, he entered the elevator and took it to the top floor. When the doors opened, his eyes met a room full of kids and what he assumed to be chao.

They were bluish creatures, except those with different colors, of course) with onion-shaped heads with dot-like spheres over their heads. Their bodies were rather small and their hands and feet, fingerless and toeless, but they did have wings; small, angel-like wings. They looked…cute.

"Ah, so that was that thing that Cream has."

Sonic sat on a grassy islet where stood three fruit trees. Sonic sat against a tree, holding one of the fruit in his hand. He never saw such a fruit, for it looked like a cross between a mango and an orange. He didn't take a bite of it, for he had enough mind not to eat a strange fruit for who knew what things were in such a fruit.

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange noise that came from near his side. It sounded like baby talk. Naturally, he looked down to the source of a noise, and one of the chao had crawled up to him, and looked up at him with its big eyes.

Sonic was debating in his mine whether to run or stay. Still in indecision, he just stared back at it.

"What are you looking at, hockey puck?"

The chao made no response, but pawed at Sonic's hand and held its arms out as if it wanted to be picked up.

Sonic picked it up with one hand, but didn't care to hold it too closely for not to look like a sissy. He handed the fruit to the chao, who took it and looked at it. After staring at it for a bit, it took a bite. Its mouth was covered with the juice of the fruit.

Sonic admired it for a sec, when a voice spoke, "Enjoying your chao?"

Sonic looked up to the speaker, who sat against a tree next to Sonic's. He was a 12-year-old boy with dark brown that was spiked and wore a sleeveless tee and light brown khakis.

"Uh, he's all right." Sonic put the chao down with the fruit, which didn't seem to mind, since it enjoyed its meal.

"Uh, he's a she."

Sonic looked a little confused.

"Female ones have stubby topknots, while males have pointed ones. See?" The boy pointed out the topknot on the chao's head which was indeed stubby.

"Uh, yes. I see…" Sonic put his arms behind his head.

"My name's Blake."

Sonic answered, "Sonic's my name."

The two talked about chao and what they tend to do when handled, while Sonic held the chao. Indeed, he noticed later that the chao was beginning to change shape and color. It had grown head-spines like his own spines, and grew a dark blue.

"Cool," Sonic said.

He spent up to six hours in the chao garden, not counting lunch. At 6 o'clock, the chao garden had to close up for the night, and Sonic went down to eat supper, which for a summer special, it had an eat-all-you-can supper for free and breakfast and lunch for half off. Sonic took advantage of this and ate his fill.

After his supper, he looked outside and saw that the sun was beginning to set behind the hotel. He decided to re-explore Station Square at night when the lights were on, for walking in a city atmosphere at night is much different then walking in a city in the daytime. He then realized that his energy had built up and ready to burst. He needed to run!

He went into the part of the Square where the back door of the hotel and took off up the street in a blur. Then, he got an idea: he could try running on the wall of the building. Once he would get enough speed, he'll leap on the wall of the building and run.

He tried it at once and whooped, for this was not something he would experience back in Knothole. He leapt from building to building when they were close enough. He leapt from one then onto the top of the building, and looked at the distant skyscrapers, lit like Christmas trees in the night.

"Oh, yeah! This is happenin'!" Sonic looked up and around the cityscape. "I'd pay money to do this every night!"

His ears caught a distant noise, coming closer. He looked down and saw four or five police cars speeding past, just managing to make the curves. Sonic leapt onto a canopy of a grocery store and bounced off, behind the quickly-leaving cars.

"What's going on? Oh, never mind; I'm going after them!"

Sonic quickly took off down after the cars, which actually took a turn and was going down towards Station Square. It began to rain on the pursuit, but Sonic didn't pay it no mind. The cars took a sharp turn and headed directly to City Hall.

"There maybe a raid or a riot! Oh, I can't miss this!"

He reached the patrol brigade which had barricaded the front courtyard of City Hall. Sonic, being too short as most Möbians are, he leapt upon the top of a car and peered down.

A large humanoid creature stood in the center of the courtyard, glaring at the policemen who have entered the barricade with large firearms.

"We have you surrounded! Surrender!" The captain said.

The creature did not move, except his fluent motions from his arm movements.

"Ready, men? FIRE!"

Sonic nearly jumped at the sudden repercussion of the guns, for he was used to the sound of laser guns from SWATbots and the Mecha-bots, which made quite a different noise. He set his eyes on the creature, which was still there, unharmed by the bullets. Then, he noticed some things shiny at the monster's feet. He guessed they were bullet casings or bullets themselves.

"Oh, no! Our weapons are useless! Retreat! All personnel fall back!" The captain fired a few more shots in futility.

"Well, if guns won't work, I guess I will."

Sonic leapt off the car and stopped just nine feet away from the front of the creature.

The creature suddenly saw Sonic as a threat, for it advanced and swung a fist at him. Sonic was just quick enough to jump up and dart away. Sonic was quickly trying to discover a weakness in this water-beast, while trying to stay away from those large hands which looked like they could do enough damage as a punch from Knuckles. The only thing in his body that looked vulnerable was a pink glowing blob between the green, pupil-less eyes. That must be the brain, and its weak spot, Sonic thought. Once its guard is down, he'll take a dash to the brain.

Sonic dodged another punch from the creature, which actually extended from his arm. Sonic quickly curled into a ball of spines and launched himself between the eyes of the creature.

The creature exploded like a water balloon, and melted into a puddle, which crawled away and reformed farther away.

"You're made of water, huh?" Sonic looked at the reforming puddle, feeling his spines and finding them wet, "Now that's a new lead, but not cool enough."

Sonic quickly rushed to get at the brain again, but was caught off guard as the creature punched Sonic in mid-air. Sonic was sent flying, slightly winded from the punch. That hurt. Sonic quickly dodged another punch which was coming fast. Sonic took advantage of his quick dodge and spin-dashed the creature's brain.

Direct hit! It melted down and retreated away to reform. Sonic quickly tried to spin-dash the brain as soon as it came out of the puddle. But he didn't get the chance; the creature jumped high and landed on the top of a flagpole and let fly a punch. Sonic quickly dodged; that arm extended thirty feet to catch Sonic.

Sonic quickly ran around, intending not to get caught by that thing on the pole.

The creature was getting more and more angry as Sonic kept dodging his punches from above. He must corner that hedgehog, and jump him as he did Knuckles the morning before. He managed to get Sonic against one the courtyard wall and he jumped down.

Sonic looked up and saw the creature jumping down on him. Seeing the threat, he took off, just as the creature landed on the cobblestones with a crash. Sonic quickly counterattacked and then spin-dashed the brain.

The creature melted away and retreated away, not to reform, but to escape to a sewer grate near the barricade.

"Hey, you big drip, where you goin'?" Sonic jogged after the creature, which had reached the sewer grate and melted in. Sonic had ran up to the sewer grate and peered down. The creature had gone. Now it's in the sewers…somewhere.

Sonic remained standing there in the rain staring down into the sewers, silently wondering in secret where that "thing" went.

A voice bellowed out from above. "You know nothing, fool! That was Chaos, God of Destruction!"

Sonic looked up quickly, but did not find the source of the voice, but somehow, he knew that voice.

Evil laughter echoed over the cityscape. Sonic looked around in earnest, but found no one. Then, he walked back to the hotel; this was too much.

- - - - -

The next morning, the sun was barely peeking out in the sky, all was normal, not a cloud in the sky; all except a lone, bluish biplane that was flying towards his workshop near the Mystic Ruins. He did not tell Sonic about this, so he wanted it to be a surprise. There, he would finish his modifications on the Tornado since the parts that he needed were not available near Knothole, but was available in Sapphire City, so he set up shop near the Mystic Ruins, for he preferred greenery to city lights.

He landed on a long ledge that served as a runway to his shop. There, he parked the Tornado in front of the large, sliding door. He leapt off the Tornado and then opened the door from the inside. Then, he turned the Tornado 180 degrees to park the Tornado indoors, facing the door.

There, he leapt out and stretched. He had traveled for up to thirty minutes from Knothole to Mystic Ruins, non-stop. There, he got out and took a look around the airport, for he hadn't been there for over a year. There, he noticed two planes laying on the wide stretch below the stairway leading down: One a silver gray, and another one that looked reminiscent to the Tornado when it was red and orange.

"Hmm, I wonder what these are doing here."

Tails did not delay to check out these planes: The silver one had worn out gears but the engine looked all right. The red one was the better of the two for its gears were good and oiled, but still the engine needed a little bit of work.

Just because he didn't have anything better to do, he started cleaning out the gears of the silver plane. It took a good two hours of ripping out the gears and polishing them, replacing those that just wouldn't do.

At the end of two hours, he had finished cleaning the inside the plane. Now, could it fly? Tails had tried to start it, but it was dead as a stone. It needed a whole bunch of energy. The only thing he could think of that would do the trick would be a Chaos Emerald, but the only one he had was the red one that was in his plane and used it more to power his electric tools.

Running back up to the Tornado, he dug out the Emerald and the energy converter that came with it. He wore thick gloves for holding the Emerald, for it was not nicknamed the "Ruby of Fire" for nothing. Being careful that it did not touch his fur or the skin underneath, he inserted the Emerald and converter into the silver plane and attaching them to the top of the engine, so it could feed the engine its power.

After installing the converter with the Emerald, he tried to start the engine again. It didn't work first time, but the second time, it stirred and sputtered, and died. The third time, it started roughly and stayed running.

Tails decided to run a test flight on it, and thought to use the flat piece of ground that it rested on as a runway, but it maybe too short.

"I guess we'll find out."

Tails backed the plane up and set the propeller to run at top speed. Then he sped the plane up and just managed to give the plane the lift it needed to fly.

Tails loved to fly planes, especially new ones that he had helped fix or build. He was enjoying the lovely morning and the breeze, which wasn't too cold.

"All systems check out! We're ready to roll!" Tails took the plane into some airplane tricks like a spin, dives and loops.

He went like this for about another ten minutes, then, it happened.

The engine started sputtering and smoking.

"What's going on?" Tails looked around in a sudden fright, and then looked at the engine compartment, from which black smoke and the sputtering came from.

"NOOO!" Tails screamed as his plane pitched and went into a nose dive.

Chapter 3: Reunited

Sonic had awaked early, due to the normality of sleeping in a bed not your own, and had gone outside to get some fresh air, and was immediately met by a crowd of reporters. After giving them the story, he turned back into the hotel, but not after being pursued by the same crowd of reporters. Sonic heard them coming and dashed away into the hotel. Running up the stairs, he found his room where someone without the appropriate card key could not get in. 

After inserting the card into the lock, he heard the bustle of the reporters in pursuit. Quickly, he opened the door and ran in, shutting the door, and using all three locks on the inside so that there was no chance of anyone getting in.

"Whew! I thought a lecture from Sally is bad enough, but this is beyond all."

Sonic heard the clamor outside from within. The reporters never seem to give up. Sonic needed to get out.

He looked out the window, and looked down: He must be about fifty or sixty feet up, but he could make it. Sonic slid the window open and as well as the screen on the outside. He still heard the clamor through the door, and decided to take his chance. There was a canopy that hung over the Sunset Resort doors; he'll try for that. He sat in the window, and there slid off. He dropped like a stone, and landed on the canopy with a thud.

It hurt more than he wanted it to; he hurt his foot on the landing, but it was not serious: just a little tenderness in his foot.

After massaging the foot, he leapt off the canopy and onto the street when it was clear. He snuck into the hotel and looked up the stairs for any signs of reporters, and quickly went into the back where the pool was.

After Sonic thought that he was safe from the reporters, he settled down on a deck chair and before he knew it, he was dozing.

That did not last long however, for fifteen minutes later, he woke up to the sound of an airplane, but this was coming very quickly and dangerously low. Sonic woke up and looked for the plane. He didn't look long for he found it flying into view. It was a silver biplane, the engine smoking and the plane was turning to and fro. As it tilted, Sonic caught a glimpse of the pilot: A small, orange fox with two tails.

"Wha—Tails? Tails! What are you--" Sonic saw the plane pitch toward the water. "Watch out! You're gonna crash!" Sonic screamed out to Tails, even though he knew that he couldn't hear him. Sonic saw the plane disappear and then he heard a distant crash and explosion.

Sonic's spines stood erect, and his heart froze. "Tails…"

Sonic ran off on the beach and looked for a hint of a plane crash. He looked quickly around and found a small trace of black smoke on a distant island. He quickly dashed in the general direction of the island. When he had run over a half-mile, he came to a catwalk that spanned over the sea to a small chain of islands.

Hoping that the catwalk went to Tails' island, he dashed over the catwalk. He only ran halfway when he spotted a fin of some kind streaking right along his strides.

"Hey! You're pretty fast for a fish."

The fish leapt out of the surface and streaked back into the surface. The fish was a sailfish, a large fish with a fin that resembled a sail.

"Wanna race, huh?" The fish didn't move in response; it just kept streaking along the catwalk. "Well, watch out; I'm a real shark on the track."

Sonic zipped ahead and vanished into a blur. When he reached the small island where the next turn was, he stopped and looked back. To his surprise, the sailfish had rushed away.

"Hey! Where'd you go?"

What he didn't notice was a black dorsal fin that was stalking Sonic from behind.

Sonic had an uncomfortable feeling of being watched, and naturally he looked behind.

"Whoa! It's Free Willy!"

Sonic intended to stay and watch the giant killer whale, but that changed when the orca came up and snatched at Sonic. He was off in a flurry of feet in two bats of an eye.

Sonic ran over the catwalks, hoping he was running fast enough for he didn't know how fast "Free Willy" could swim. He heard the catwalk crash behind, and increased his speed.

Was that whale trying to eat him? They didn't eat hedgehogs…or did they?

Crash! The whale crashed through the catwalk just ten feet behind him!

Sonic kept running, encouraged by the huge wake behind the whale's fin and the sound of crashing wood from behind; what kind of whale ate hedgehogs on a regular basis?

Suddenly, the catwalk ended right ahead!

"Uh oh! Now what?"

Sonic's quick mind, acquired from fighting Dr. Robotnik back in Robotropolis, analyzed the situation: The end of the catwalk was fast coming up and Sonic looked back at the big black fin. Then, he noticed an island shore not too far from end of the catwalk. Maybe if he could do a running leap…

That decision came quickly as he ran out of running room, and he leapt as far as he could. Because he was running at a near seventy miles per hour, his leap had a lot of momentum and carried him over the water and onto the shore, not touching the water.

He got up and looked at the dorsal fin of the killer whale, which was leaving to find something less quick.

"You made a good choice! I'd probably give you ulcers!" Sonic called after the orca.

Sonic turned around and tried to locate the small stream of smoke that indicated where the crash was. Sonic walked around the island, which resembled a rough "s" shape, and located a heap of trash.

"Wait a second, that's a plane…or was."

Sonic took a look around the heap of junk, and found a heap of orange fur lying five feet away. It must be Tails, and he must've bailed out before he crashed. That was a little too close.

Sonic walked up to the limp body of Tails, and shook him by the shoulders to see if he could revive his old buddy.

On the first attempt, nothing happened. The second made Tails move and groan. The third, he actually responded.

"Not now, Sonic. Just a few more…"

Sonic couldn't help chuckling, but said, "Hey kid."

Tails' eyes slowly opened, and the first thing he saw was two crimson sneakers with white straps. Slowly his eyes traveled up the blue legs and eventually into the emerald-green eyes of Sonic.

Sonic flashed a grin. "What am I gonna do with you?"

Tails sat up and wagged his tails. "Hiya, Sonic. What are you doin' here?"

"I saw you crash and came to check on ya," Sonic replied.

Tails got up and found that he had a bit of a headache. "What happened?"

"I told ya: You crashed."

"It wasn't that bad if I remember." Tails scratched his head.

"Not that bad? I can't even tell what it was!"

Tails looked at the wreck. Indeed, the plane pretty much exploded from the inside and the wings buckled. "I see what you mean."

Sonic then said, "I thought you weren't coming down here. What made you change your mind?"

"Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to show you something."

"And what's that?"

"Uh, we better get to shore first. Is there a way to get across?"

"Well, there used to be." Sonic shrugged.

Tails looked inquisitive.

"Well, I got over here by running over a long catwalk from the docks, but it kinda got smashed by Free Willy."

Tails' eyes popped open. "A killer whale destroyed the docks?"

"Yep; he thought I was dinner. It wouldn't have surprised me if he was carrying garlic butter."

Tails chuckled briefly, and suddenly remembered something. "Hey, I forgot!" Tails sprinted to the plane and ripped open the engine compartment.

Sonic looked curious. "What's wrong? You left your piggy bank in there?"

Tails ignored him and tugged at something deep inside the compartment. "Hey, Sonic! Help me here!"

Sonic came to Tails and put his hands in the compartment to where Tails had his hands.

"Ready, Sonic?"

"I guess."

Now, on the count of three: 1…2…3!"

Sonic and Tails tugged and the object they had their grips on, snapped its hold and caused Sonic and Tails to fall backward and the object to fly out of their grips.

Tails recovered first and immediately saw the object starting to fall. He leapt up and caught the object just before it landed.

"Good catch," said Sonic as he sat up and brushed the sand from his spines.

Tails sat up and delicately brushed away some grime on the object (which was a rectangular-shaped object with four clamps on the side like legs. A large red thing was glowing gem was in the center.). Tails quickly put it into a backpack.

"Now what?" Sonic said.

"I guess I fly you over." Tails wound the straps of the backpack over his shoulders. Then, he spun his tails and leapt into the air. Sonic lifted his hands for Tails to grab and they begun their short hop over the sea.

"Where to, Sonic?"

"Uh, let's go to Sunset Resort. I left something there."

"Ok, lead the way."

Sonic gave directions as Tails airlifted Sonic over the blue expanse.

Not five minutes later, a red figure glided onto the island where Sonic and Tails were on earlier. It was Knuckles and he had glided from the shore closest to Sapphire City on Angel Island. He landed on the small island and saw that he still had a way to go.

"Aw, geez. I still have to get over to the mainland!"

Knuckles looked around; hoping to find a high hill to glide from, but the island was pretty much flat, besides the palm trees. Exasperated and slightly irked, he climbed the tallest tree closest to the mainland. The climb proved tedious due to the lack of branches between the top and the roots, and Knuckles ended up getting many bruises from falling before he was able to reach the top and glide over.

The glide even proved more painful then the bruises and scrapes from the tree, for he only got half way over when he splashed down into the salty sea with a belly flop. He swam back to the surface and spluttered, for the wind was knocked out of him. After flapping about in the water for a bit, he began swimming for shore, smarting from the countless hurting that will come later.

"This just isn't my day."

- - - - -

Tails was lying back on a lawn chair near the swimming pool, waiting for Sonic. Sonic had told Tails he had to get something from his room. Tails had received many comments about how cute he looked, being a fox. Tails pretended to ignore these, and concentrated to what he was gonna do with that red plane back at the Mystic Ruins.

This was interrupted as Sonic came out holding something shiny in his hand.

"What's that, Sonic?"

Sonic smiled. "Oh, nothing, just this." Sonic opened his hand and revealed the glowing object: It was a small gold ring that was shining a radiant yellow glow.

"A Power Ring? Where'd you get that?"

"I kept it after I found it while we were hunting down Dr. Buttnik and the Death Egg. Never know when you need one, since we don't have all the Chaos Emeralds." Sonic changed the subject. "What was that thing that we got out of that former plane?"

Tails promptly unzipped the zipper on his backpack. Sonic noticed that he was wearing thick, leather gloves.

"Why do you have those on?"

"You'll see."

Tails pulled out the energy converter. "This was something I was working on when you found me two days ago. It's an energy converter, and look at what else I was using."

Tails pulled something out of the top of the converter and showed it to Sonic.

"You brought the Red Chaos Emerald? No wonder your wearing protective gloves."

"Yeah, I used this Emerald to power that plane that crashed. The engine was too old and it blew up."

Sonic was starting to feel the hot sensation coming from the Chaos Emerald. "You'd better put that bank. It'd be just our luck if a nearly umbrella burst into flame because of that rock."

Tails stuffed the Emerald back into the converter and packed the whole thing away.

"This whole project of mine that you saw should soon be able to power up the plane so much, that it could even beat out the Tornado!"

"Well, why don't you just test that out on the Tornado besides risking your neck on pathetic excuses of planes like that silver one was?"

"The Tornado's not quite airworthy yet, but it will be if I can work on it later today." Tails then headed for the doors. "Let's go to the Mystic Ruins and I can work on it."

"Why there?" Sonic looked a little confused.

"I have a workshop there and all I need to do is to install some top weapons that could take out an armored tank. C'mon!"

Tails went on ahead, and Sonic just stood still. Where had he gotten weapons like that?

Sonic then jogged after Tails, shouting, "Tails! We gotta talk!"

- - - - -

After several minutes of patching up some scrapes and wringing out damp gloves and socks, Knuckles set himself to work on finding each shard of the Master Emerald. Knowing that the Island was likely over land when it blew up, each shard would've scattered in a near twenty-five-mile radius. This will not be easy.

Knuckles looked around at the bustling traffic of lunchtime in Station Square, and sighed, "Better get to work."

Knuckles began by walking around the radius of the Square, hoping to find the slightest sound of an Emerald shard.

Being a Guardian of Angel Island gave him the ability to sense the presence of Power Emeralds, and each group of Emeralds (Master, Super and Chaos) had a certain resonance of sound that signaled where it was.

After informing the Chaotix about what had happened, and had told them to guard what was left of the Master Emerald, he had come to Station Square to find some shards.

He came to City Hall and saw the remains of a barricade, and naturally wondered what had happened, but quickly shrugged that off when he heard a high-pitched ringing.

Automatically thinking that it was a nearby shard, he began pacing to get a ping on the sound. Getting nowhere, he began to wonder if it was behind one of these buildings, or…on top. Knuckles looked up at the building where the sound was the loudest, and it was City Hall, a good thirty stories high.

After slamming his spiked fists into the wall of City Hall, he began to climb with the help of his knuclaws, his right hand going up with his left foot, and his left hand with his right foot.

It took him a good several minutes to reach the top, willing himself not to be distracted by the growing noise in his head. When he did reach the top, he found that the Emerald resonance was very loud, meaning he was hot on the trail.

After a quick search, he located a piece of greenish-colored glass the size of a short 2x4 board. That wasn't too hard.

He looked at the view over Station Square and parts of Sapphire City. A shard must be close by somewhere.

He leapt off the building in a back flip and stretched out, fists forward. This gave him the ability to glide, which came from birth when his father, Locke Echidna, had the egg Knuckles was in radiated by the power of chaos energy from the Master and Super Emeralds, guaranteeing long life and other abilities needed to protect the Master Emerald.

He began to fly in circles when he picked up another emerald hum, but this one was distant and rather small. He glided over towards Sunset Resort, and the resonance picked up. There has to be one there.

He landed on the wall and climbed a short way up to the roof. The noise was not quite loud, but he looked around the perimeter and the area of the rooftop, but found nothing. The only thing he knew was that when he came to the side of the roof which faced the ocean, the noise grew louder.

He leapt from the roof, slowly descending by gliding in circles. When he had reached the bottom, he found where the noise was coming from…a dumpster filled with trash.

"Rats, that's a letdown. I hate digging through trash."

Knuckles began shuffling trash to and fro, looking for anything that looked like glass, and hoping it was a shard. But after a half hour of digging, he came up fruitless.

"What's goin' on? Am I losing my mind, or am I just more tired then I think."

Knuckles looked to the ground, and saw something sparkling behind the rear right wheel of the dumpster. He quickly picked it up and felt the sensation of power rush through him: a shard, not much bigger then a 9-volt battery.

Very agitated that he had dug through trash for nothing, he picked up several full trashcans and hurled them everywhere, spilling trash. He also began kicking around the already-scattered trash just to take his anger out on something.

Still storming about that event, he stuffed the small shard into his backpack and began searching again, reminding himself over and over again to look, before acting.

- - - - -

Darkness.

That's all it saw.

But soon, little red lines buzzed across his vision, trying to bring up an image.

Then, it heard a lot of garbled sounds from outside, as if someone was trying to speak to him, but from behind a metal wall.

As it tried harder to see and hear, the dark screen began to glow a dark red, and the sound became clearer.

Suddenly, a dark image came on with an electronic buzz, and the sound was understandable.

"All systems, full power!" someone said.

The image grew brighter, and it heard its insides whirred to life. It looked around. It was in a green-colored room with two pods on either side of him.

"Look at me, my newest creation."

It looked down, and looked at a short (compared to it) man with an enormous belly. He was dressed in a red lab coat that reached to only his waist. His face bore a rather large moustache which was longer point-to-point then his shoulder length. His eyes were nothing but dark glasses with no unique features. He had metal head gear on that had knobs that protruded on both ends of his head, left and right.

"I am your Supreme Master, Dr. Ivo Robotnik! And you shall only serve me! Now, log that into your master registration."

It made a few beeps inside and droned, "Master registration: Dr. Robotnik. What can I do for you, master?"

Robotnik replied thus, "Nothing right now. I must tell you who, and of what you came from. I have created the elite E-100 series of robots, and you are the second of these that has been activated. Hold still for a moment."

It (a robot) stood stone still, as Dr. Robotnik was putting something on its side, and its right shoulder. After a moment, the obese man stepped back, and said proudly, "You are now E-102, codename: Gamma. Register that into your identification banks."

The robot beeped again, and droned, "E-series model code number: E-102. Codename: Gamma."

"Very good, Gamma. Go move around to get used to walking, for you are to be a battle prototype, and when you have gotten done practicing, come downstairs and I'll give you more instructions."

As Gamma went to walk around in the room, Robotnik stopped at one of the pods, the one to the left from where Gamma had stood when activated.

"Metal Sonic? Oh, Mecha-Bot Two? Are you enjoying yourself?"

A blue, hedgehog-like robot was floating around upright in the pod, but his speech was transmitted through a computer nearby.

"Yes, doctor. I am nearly completely renovated. I should be all repaired within five minutes."

"I still do not understand how you damaged yourself so severely."

"It was Ssss…that hedgehog!" Metal Sonic's voice dripped venom as he said that. Robotnik made a note to himself that the emotions for Metal Sonic had implanted themselves into the nanite-based super-computer almost too well. His programmed hatred for Sonic had become inborn instinct. That will definitely be better as Metal Sonic would face Sonic again.

"I'll program the computer to release you once your renovation has reached 100, and when you do, come directly to me."

"Yes, doctor."

Dr. Robotnik left to the level below, Gamma was still practicing walking, stumbling once in a while, and Metal Sonic was preparing to be released from this, as he considered it, this water prison.

Five minutes later, a gear kicked in, and all the liquid he was submerged in drained away. Large fans dropped in and blown all the excess liquid off, and then, the glass cover of the pod lifted and Metal Sonic stumbled out of the pod. He had been in that thing several times, as new weapon systems were being installed, and even a new brain containing his old programming improved. As a result, his arms were bigger, his reactions were less robotic and quicker, and he was a prime example of an assassin robot.

One thing that did not change was his utter hatred for Sonic, whom he called "that hedgehog." Any mention of the name caused such a rage to flush through his metal frame. How he hated that hedgehog and anything about him!

What he really hated Sonic for was that not only that he was whipped by Sonic a good many times, but the ever-present fact that he was only a copy of that hedgehog.

Metal Sonic, nothing special about that name, except the fact that it reminded him about that hedgehog. Must he remain a copy forever?

No, he must not think of that! Maybe if he killed that hedgehog, he won't have anyone to copy, and then, he'd be unique.

Then, he remembered his instructions from the doctor, and he darted to the lover level.

- - - - -

Gamma had been working on his strides, when he saw a hedgehog-like robot dart by. He consulted his internal computer for any recognition of that robot. Nothing. Then, he consulted the system he had internally linked into to listen for instructions from his master, and he found identification of the robot.

Call-sign: Mecha-Bot 2. Codename: Metal Sonic. Active Prototype. Chief Assassin Robot.

Then he remembered the other pod that was to his right when he was activated. He consulted the network and found the identification.

Call-sign: Mecha-Bot 1. Codename: Silver Sonic. Inactive Prototype. Former Assassin Robot. Declared inactive after Death Egg defeat.

Death Egg? What was that? Again, he checked the network, but someone else was on the network channel.

"What are you doing, E-102?"

Gamma would've jumped if he showed emotion. He quickly droned over the network. "Identification…please."

There was a metallic growl, then the stranger responded. "If I must…I am Mecha-Bot 2."

"You are Metal Sonic?"

Metal Sonic growled which would cause someone to wince. "You are never to identify me as Metal Sss…that name! If you wish to call me by my codename instead of my call-sign, identify me as Mecha, got it?"

Gamma replied, "Yes…Mecha."

"That's better. Now answer my first question: what were you doing in the network records?"

"I was…" Gamma was not sure what to call it at first. "…consulting the records to ascertain about what I am to do, but I stumbled on the records of the Death Egg."

Metal Sonic at first did not respond, but said later, "You have better business then research. You were to report to Dr. Robotnik, were you not?"

"Yes, once I was done adjusting to my lower appendage use."

"Well, hurry it up! The doctor is growing impatient…"

"I will dispatch myself to him immediately, Mecha-Bot 2."

"Good."

A few minutes later, Gamma had come to Dr. Robotnik, who was standing near a closed door, accompanied by three robots that looked reminiscent to Gamma, and Metal Sonic, who stood opposite of Robotnik, and looked hatefully at the other E-series robot opposite of him.

Gamma came up and reported to Robotnik.

"I see you have completed your walking adjustments, now you must now be tested in targeting and agility. You will find an assortment of three targets: A two-tailed fox, a red echidna, and you may find one target of a blue hedgehog. Destroy all you see, but if you come to that Sonic doll--"

Metal Sonic began tapping his foot.

"--destroy it quickly, for if you ever meet the real Sonic in your missions, you will have to be quick and destroy him, for he can be very dangerous to robots such as yourself.

"But before you go in, I will introduce you to three other E-series models activated moments after you were. Record these identities into your data banks for you will have plenty of contact with them."

Robotnik pointed to the blue robot with two guns for arms. "This is E-103 Delta…" Robotnik moved to the orange robot (one gun arm and normal arm, like Gamma). "This is E-104 Epsilon…" and he moved to the last robot, a purplish-colored robot (same as Delta, except for color). "This is E-105 Zeta."

Robotnik added, "You may meet another E-series model in there, E-101 Beta, but he'll pay you no mind, and you'll pay him no mind. Now, enter!"

As Gamma entered the now-open door, Robotnik said, "You are not as advanced in combat as Beta, but I'm sure you'll do fine."

Robotnik began repeating the instructions to the other E-serie

s models as Gamma rounded a curve, and he met some targets. He quickly swept them with his tag laser, which helped him lock onto targets, and fired rapidly to decimate the targets.

After all the E-series had entered, Robotnik walked a short way to a computer that showed the progress of all five units in there.

"I can't believe that you keep building these new robots: first SWATbots, then U-SWATbots, COMbots, and now these. I predict each one will fail eventually."

"So you said time and time again, Mecha." Robotnik did not turn to look at Mecha, for his attention was to train these robots into killing machines. He noted that Beta and Gamma were doing better then average, but still, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta were doing average, just as well.

The door opened and a black-and-white robot with two guns as arms and carried a hoverjet on its back came out.

"Well done, Beta. Now stick around, I need you to test the next best one."

"Yes, my master."

Not too long afterwards, a red robot came out. It was Gamma.

"Gamma, I'm proud of you. I didn't have any idea that you had what it takes, being more behind then even Zeta, who has a rather-weak weapon. I'm going to have to test you against another E-series. Beta!"

Beta, the black-and-white robot stepped forward. Gamma looked at Beta, and they greeted each other over the network. Metal Sonic, still wired into the network, listened to this friendly greeting and looked disgusted.

"I'm pitting Beta against you, Gamma. Why? I have built an extravagant aircraft, and I need the elite of the elite to be part of the head crew. The one who wins this match will serve on my ship, the mighty fortress, the Egg Carrier!

"Personally, I'm betting on Beta, being the most-advanced of all of you, but I owe you, Gamma, a fair chance. Now, the first one to knock the other down wins. Now fight!"

Beta charged, for he knew that all he needed to do was to push Gamma out of balance, but Gamma, being still new, was trying to lock on to a target with his tag laser. Gamma locked onto Beta's arm, and fired quickly.

The missile that came from Gamma's arm knocked Beta's arm out of position, and Beta reeled about from that surprise attack, but he quickly counterattacked by pointing both arms forward and fired. Two missiles quickly hit Gamma in his metal torso, but he remained standing. Gamma quickly fired, hoping it would hit.

It reached a mark that neither Gamma nor Beta expected. Gamma had fired wildly, hoping it would hit, and the missile slammed into the upper-right leg. That hit caused the leg to collapse, and Beta collapsed into a heap of metal.

"Wonderful, Gamma! I never expected you to beat a more-advanced robot! There must be more to you than meets the eye! I hereby give Gamma permission to serve on the Egg Carrier!"

Beta had slowly risen but rushed to Dr. Robotnik as he heard the special privilege that was bestowed upon Gamma. He pretty much pushed Gamma out of the way and stared at his master.

"Huh? So, you want to come along with us, eh?"

Beta stepped in between Gamma and the doctor, blocking Gamma completely from Robotnik's view. If he had visible emotions, he would've looked reminiscent to a sad puppy, begging for attention.

"Ok, ok. I guess we can always use a spare set of parts I guess." Robotnik motioned Metal Sonic to him. "Mecha? I'm giving Beta special permission to board the Egg Carrier. Take them to the Carrier and wire Gamma into the network there. As for Beta, I leave to you what to do with him."

Metal Sonic looked at Beta, and even though for his emotionless face, he looked like a predator fixing on his prey.

"I have somewhere to go, for I hear that Sonic is staying in Station Square. I mean to meet him and show who now he's dealing with."

With that, Dr. Robotnik left into an elevator. Metal Sonic lead Gamma and Beta through the halls of the base, and all the while, Mecha was dreaming about what to do to Beta.

Chapter 4: Stolen!

Sonic and Tails had gone to the Station Square Train Station to buy tickets to the Mystic Ruins, but since a train had not been docked and prepared to leave, they had to wait a good fifteen minutes, of which Sonic complained.

Tails was trying to pass the time and went looking around in a nearby gift shop, which usually were always close to a travel spot. He explored the small two-lane gift shop and didn't really find anything of interest, except maybe a few toys around.

But he did find a magazine about mechanics, and being a lover of machines, was completely engrossed in the magazine.

"I have to get a subscription for this."

Tails would've stayed there forever, if Sonic didn't find out that Tails was gone and went looking for him. He found him just a few seconds later in the magazine section of the gift shop from which Tails didn't move.

"Hey, kid, are you still on Möbius?"

Tails jumped, and looked right into Sonic's face. "Can you warn a kid before scaring him?" Tails said, very surprised.

"I'm sorry! You stood there for ten minutes! I had to stay something."

"I guess it's okay; I was just looking at this great magazine."

"Well then invest in a subscription, kiddo."

"I actually thought about that, but I couldn't find a card for subscriptions in here."

"You must've been in another world, 'cause here's the card." Sonic picked up a paper card from the floor at Tails' feet.

Tails looked sheepish, and then both of them heard a train whistle approaching.

"Sounds like the trains coming," Tails remarked.

"About time."

They ran outside, just in time to see a grey, stream-lined train pull in. Multiple sets of doors opened and a number of passengers piled out and out the doors. Sonic and Tails huddled against the side of the stairways to avoid being trampled.

It took another five minutes for the train to get cleared and to get rid of a few scraps of trash lying here and there in the cars, but soon, Sonic and Tails were first into the cars when they heard that the train was going to Mystic Ruins. They took the one in the middle since it had the biggest windows (Sonic loves views.).

"I hope it's not too long," Sonic muttered.

"Gee, Sonic. You have the patience of a wasp. Ow!"

Tails quickly jumped up from his seat, and examined one of his tails.

"What's the matter, bud?"

"I bent my tail too far!" Tails was rubbing the part of the tail where it hurt. "By, that hurt!"

"Which tail did you hurt in particular?" Sonic smiled.

"Ha ha, very funny," Tails sarcastically remarked. "Let's bend your tail, and see how you feel, Sonic."

"No thanks, I'm not much for empathy." Sonic couldn't help grinning.

By now, the train had already pulled out of the station, and was gaining speed. Sonic looked out the window and looked over the Square.

"Hey, Tails! Look!"

Tails jumped and looked in the general direction Sonic was pointing. "What? What, Sonic? What?"

"There's a casino down there, and by the looks of it, it's a beaut!"

"Sonic! Remember what happened the last time we were at a casino!"

"We were just kids then, fraidy cat!"

"And were not now?"

Suddenly, a steward hushed them to silenced, and reprimanded not to disturb the other passengers with their racket again. Sonic and Tails whispered the rest of the conversation.

"That's not the point. At least, I can get in. I'm thirteen after all," Sonic said quietly.

"Is that even close to getting admitted?"

"Sure. Teenagers should get in, and why shouldn't I?"

"I'm still not sure if going there is such a good idea. We barely have any money, except just that little bit that we got with us."

Sonic found a stack of brochures and found one brochure of the casino in Station Square.

"Here's something about that casino."

"What does it say?"

"Well, it's only open at night, it admits anyone, human or Möbian, over the age of thirteen. For anyone underneath, they have a kids' casino with a state-of-the-art arcade."

That last statement caught Tails' attention, for he loved video games, next to machines of course.

"Cool! When does it open?"

Sonic flipped the brochure over and over, looking for a specific time. "I don't really see--wait! Here it is. It only says…sundown."

Tails looked at the brochure as if it changed into a parakeet. "That's it? No '7 PM?'"

"Just…sundown."

Tails just shrugged. "That should be simple: just show up when it's getting dark. Not too hard. I guess it's for people who don't have watches."

"Of which neither of us have."

By now, they had reached the mountains and began ascending into a green region where sat a bunch of old, rundown stone buildings.

"Looks like we're getting close," Sonic remarked.

"They're ruins, all right, but what's so mystic about them?" Tails said, making quotation marks with his fingers as he said mystic.

"Maybe they have magic eggs that are full of chocolate." Sonic smirked.

"Now that would be nice," Tails said, licking his lips. "I love chocolate."

"Who doesn't?"

Suddenly, the train balked, and slowed to a stop, right beside a wooden-shack-like station. Sonic and Tails disembarked from the train and took a look around.

"So, this is the Mystic Ruins, huh?"

"Well, part of them, I guess."

Sonic and Tails began descending the semi-twisting stairway to the ground.

"Wow, this looks like a great place to explore," Sonic said, but then said thoughtfully, "You know, this place kind of reminds me of the Floating Island. It has that…feel."

Tails delayed to say a reply, but eventually said, "You know, I feel it too. It's…strange."

"Maybe yesterday's breakfast is coming back to haunt me."

"Huh?" Tails looked strangely at Sonic.

"Long story." Sonic then said, "Hey, you said that you had a workshop here right?"

"Yeah," Tails said, pointing up to a flat that rose out of the earth about fifty feet away from Sonic's and Tails' position. "It's past that flat. Let's go, so I can put this Chaos Emerald back in the workshop for safekeeping."

As Sonic and Tails got to some stone steps that led to the top of the flat, Sonic began asking Tails about what he did to the Tornado.

"I mean, it's not red anymore. Why the change?"

"Red gets boring after a while, so I chose blue, and I gave it golden yellow streaks."

"Sounds pretty cool, and you said that you have new weapons too. What kinds are they, as in, are they legal?"

Tails was unable to respond because another voice came from above.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my old friends, Sonic, and his sidekick, Tails."

Both looked up, and Tails instinctively hid the Chaos Emerald and converter out of sight on the steps.

A round, squat man with an enormous red moustache descended from the sky in a hovercraft ship, with a large lens on the front.

Dr. Robotnik.

He seemed different to what Sonic and Tails remembered, for instance, he had gained weight and his belly now had the look of an egg, point-side up.

"Oh, look, it's a giant, talking egg. A little late for Easter, aren't you, Doc?"

"Silence!" barked Robotnik. "I am Dr. Robotnik, the most cunning scientific genius in the world, and soon-to-be dictator of Möbius!"

"Duh, we knew that, Eggman," Sonic said, silently congratulating himself for the new nickname.

"Enough! I have new plans to rule Möbius; better not get in the way."

"You're always up to no good, now what do you want?" Tails said, taking a defensive stance beside Sonic.

"I'm glad you asked that; saves time. What I want is any Chaos Emeralds that you have! I have need for them."

"And what makes you think well just give you a Chaos Emerald just like that, even if we had one?" Sonic said.

"I know you have one, warthog! I tracked you through a chaos-homing-device, which will lock on to the nearest Chaos Emerald within a radius of two miles. All I needed to do is to fly around and home in on one, and that would be yours. Now, give it to me or else!"

"Or else what, Eggman?" Sonic said defiantly.

"Or else, I'll take it from you by force!"

Robotnik pressed a button on his hovercraft and several panels opened on the sides of the hovercraft. Four armor-plated wings sprouted from the openings and two turbofan-engine-like tanks sprouted at the front. Several engines kicked to life at the back of the four wings. All in all, the hovercraft now had a vague resemblance to a hornet.

"Good show, Eggman. Is there anything else?"

"Why, yes, Sonic. It's called 'death!'"

With that, the hovercraft, now dubbed "Egg Hornet" by its creator, whipped about to the opposite side of the flat from Sonic and Tails, and fired a barrage of missiles.

Sonic and Tails quickly separated as the missiles detonated themselves where Sonic and Tails have stood. Robotnik's aim was getting better.

Tails had taken to the air as Sonic sped along the circle of the flat.

"Is that all you can give, Eggman? I thought Metal Sonic could only do worse!"

"You'll see what this Egg Hornet can do, and you'll wish that you gave me that Chaos Emerald when you had the chance!"

The engine-like tanks sprouted seven-foot-long spikes that turned like a drill, and then Robotnik charged at the airborne Tails.

"Tails! Watch out!" Sonic screamed in warning.

Tails was quickly alerted by Sonic's warning, and turned back, and freaked.

"Yikes!" Tails dropped like a stone, narrowly missing one of the turning drills.

Sonic charged at the Egg Hornet, vengeance spelled large in his face.

Robotnik suddenly turned and charged at Sonic, grinning evilly as the drills lanced into Sonic's flesh…if he had been there.

Sonic had darted to the right as the drills embedded themselves into the earth. Sonic quickly curled into a ball of spines and launched himself into the main body.

The whole craft shuddered as two tons of force smacked into the main frame by a ball of spines. The craft lifted up into the sky, shaking a bit as it rose.

"Ha! I found a weak spot."

Tails saw this too, and landed near the front of his workshop, and as the Hornet was firing missiles at Sonic yet again, Tails leapt off the ledge near the front and grabbed onto a piece of armor on the top-left wing. He began pulling wires out of the wing, and the engine began sputtering.

This did not go unnoticed by Robotnik however.

"You little brat!" Robotnik cursed various things at Tails, who had pulled out quite a few wires.

"You shouldn't say things like that. Imagine if little kids heard that."

In rage, Robotnik yanked on a large lever which rotated the craft 360 degrees on its side. Tails couldn't hold on, and lost his grip, fell to the ground underneath the craft. Robotnik went high into the sky, and extended the drills again, and dropped forward to Tails, intending to run him through.

Sonic quickly dashed under, grabbed Tails, and got out of there in a blur.

"Geez, Tails. That's twice I had to save you!"

"At least I hurt that machine this time. Look at that wing!"

Sonic saw smoke pour out of the inactive wing, and saw Robotnik cursing Tails to his great-grandfather. "Nice, but check this out…"

Sonic opened his hand and showed the Power Ring, and slipped the ring onto his middle finger.

Immediately the air changed. Tails felt a slight charge as a shimmering blue field covered Sonic. Tails immediately whooped for he knew what was going to happen.

Sonic shouted at Robotnik. "Better say 'bye bye,' Eggman!" Sonic leapt into the air, and curled into a ball of spines.

Robotnik didn't see it coming, but the last thing he knew, a glowing ball of spines launched into the air and slammed into the frame over and over again! Robotnik tried to block the intense beating he was getting, but each hit was too fast.

In ten seconds, the frame of the Egg Hornet collapsed into a crumpled heap onto the flat.

"Go, Sonic!" Tails cheered.

Sonic fell from the sky as the Power Ring's power was re-contained into the golden band. He landed right in front of the hovercraft, as it collapsed as the power failed temporarily. "Nice try, Eggman. That was just too easy."

Tails had already gotten the converter with the Emerald still in it, and was walking up to the shop, until the unthinkable happened.

"Tails! Watch out!"

A three-fingered claw sprouted from behind Robotnik's chair, and latched onto the Emerald's faceted top. Too fast for Tails or Sonic to react, the claw ripped the Emerald out of the converter.

"Oh, no!" Sonic shouted.

"He snagged it!" Tails shouted, in a combination of shock and anger.

Sonic secretly hoped that the Emerald will burn Robotnik so hard, but that hope was dashed as Robotnik slipped on thick leather gloves and grabbed the Red Emerald from the crane claw.

"Ha! The first catch!"

"Give that rock back, Egghead!"

Robotnik ignored him. "Chaos could use a little snack."

"Who's 'Chaos?'" Tails said, still angry that the fact Robotnik took his own Chaos Emerald.

As if in response, the ground grew wet near the hovercraft, which was righting itself and working normally again; suddenly, the wet ground spilled out water in a thick flat bubble, which suddenly formed into a humanoid monster with a glowing brain between two shapeless, lidless eyes.

"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed, taking a defensive stance. "That's the monster I fought last night!"

"Uh…monster?" Tails said questionably to Sonic, and retreated a few steps. "Sonic, you said nothing about a monster."

"You're 'friend' needs to keep you more informed. This is Chaos, God of Destruction!"

Robotnik tossed Chaos the Red Emerald, and the red gem hit the watery torso and drifted into the center. A bright reddish flash emitted from the Emerald, which caused Sonic and Tails to blink.

When the flash dissipated, Chaos reformed and had a reinforced right arm. A cartilaginous skeleton thickened the arm two to three times bigger. The Chaos Emerald was embedded into the hand part of the skeleton (equivalent to the carpals and metacarpals of the human hand).

"Yes, it's really happening!" Robotnik curled his hands into fists in fulfilled anticipation. "It's just as the stone tablets predicted!" Robotnik turned to Sonic and Tails. "Here this, boys: Chaos gains more strength each time I give him a Chaos Emerald! When I give him another, he'll be stronger, and when he gets all seven, he'll be invincible, and destroy Sapphire City! And on its ruins, I'll build my ultra base, even more efficient then Robotropolis!"

Robotnik laughed evilly, and Sonic and Tails stood helpless.

"C'mon, Chaos; let's get ourselves another Chaos Emerald."

Robotnik reached down into the hovercraft and threw an object toward the ground. An explosion of white dust and a white flash enveloped both Chaos and Robotnik. When the dust and light vanished, Robotnik and Chaos were gone.

"Dang! Eggman definitely turned a new lead, but this is not what I had in mind."

"He stole the Emerald Knuckles gave me last time we were there…he stole my emerald!" Tails started to tear up.

Sonic affectionately touched Tails' shoulder. "C'mon, kid. That was just one Emerald, and Eggman said that there were seven Emeralds total, and since Chaos appears only to have one Emerald, they're has to be more Emeralds around."

Tails wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his glove. "I guess we can try to find the others before him."

"Sure! And if we do find one, you can keep one that'll not burn you every time you touch it."

Tails tried to laugh, but not much came out, but he did say, "I wonder what are the other colors are."

"I'm assuming that they're the same colors of the Super Emeralds. What were they again? Red, dark blue, sky blue…"

"There was a yellow one and a purple one too."

"'K, that's five, and there was a white one, I think…there's one more…what color was it?" Sonic snapped his fingers repeatedly, trying to recall the missing color.

"Green!" Tails suddenly exclaimed.

"That's it! How could I forget green? Geez, the Master Emerald's green."

"No, green!"

"Yeah, I know. I was just saying--"

"Sonic, green!"

"Are you okay, Tails?"

"Look, Sonic! There's a green rock over by the pumps of my workshop!"

Sonic looked to where Tails pointed. "Hey, you're right! Could that be a Chaos Emerald?"

"Let's go find out!"

Sonic and Tails ran up to the pumps, and found a green stone that was slightly glowing in the heart of the gem. It sat on a pedestal, and had a symbol of a hurricane on the surface of the gem. It looked like a bit like a trophy.

"This isn't a Chaos Emerald." Sonic picked up the pedestal. "This is…what is it?"

"I dunno, but I can tell you, it's cool." Tails took the trophy and looked it over, touching the smooth surface. "It feels cold. Strange."

Sonic blurted out. "I'm going exploring; I'm sure there's an Emerald around here somewhere."

Sonic dashed away down the stairs, leaving Tails to mess with the trophy. Then he remembered.

"Oh, my gosh! I left the converter on the steps! I hope Sonic didn't trample it."

Tails ran down to where he left the converter, trophy in one hand. He found the converter in good condition, just covered in a bit of dust. Tails breathed a sigh of relief, and then carried the converter back to the workshop.

He covered the converter with a tarp, and started looking over the trophy. He pulled out a magnifying glass and looked through it and into the jewel.

"Wow, this is strange. There's some strange light in there…it feels like…"

He was interrupted by a furious knocking on the workshop door. Tails got up and opened the door. It was Sonic!

"Hey, kid! I found something in a cave nearby! A pedestal with a hurricane symbol! C'mon!"

Tails picked up the trophy and ran out after Sonic. Not much later, they came to the mouth of the cave and then entered. The cave wasn't deep, but it did have a chasm with a strong gust rushing up the open shaft above. Several large planks, logs and various debris floated at the mouth of the chasm.

"Weird," Tails said. "Look at all that junk floating over that hole! Those are huge!"

"Here's the pedestal with the symbol on it." Sonic motioned to a white stone pedestal with an emerald-green sign of a hurricane on the back. A square indention sat in the middle.

"Looks…ancient."

"Yeah, ain't it cool?" Sonic extended a hand to Tails. "Gimme that pedestal; I'm gonna try it out."

"Gimme that pedestal…what?"

Sonic sighed exasperatingly. "Gimme that pedestal, please."

"Thank you, hedgehog." Tails smiled, handing Sonic the pedestal.

"You're welcome, freak boy." Sonic said, jamming the pedestal into the square indention.

At once, a very strong wind blasted through the cave, strong enough to lift a roof off a house.

"What's happening?" Tails shouted at Sonic over the intense wind.

"What?" Sonic shouted back.

Tails repeated what he said; enunciating every syllable over the wind, but Sonic still couldn't hear him. Then, another thing happened. Sonic's feet left the turf and the wind sucked him into the chute.

Tails saw this. "SONIC!" Tails shouted up the shoot, but then he was sucked up the shoot after him, screaming as he went.

- - - - -

Knuckles had spent eight hours hunting down shards around the city. He found over twenty shards around in various parts of Sapphire City, taking breaks occasionally.

Knuckles didn't dream that it wouldn't be so difficult finding the shards, but finding at least twenty isn't too bad.

His cell phone chirped suddenly, and he answered it. "Yeah? This is Knux."

"Boss? This is Vector," a deep voice with an New Yorker accent said over the phone. "I'm just calling to tell you that we found some more pieces of the Master Emerald. It's about a quarter complete, and Espio found some weird claw things nearby the pyramid that the Master is at."

"Claw things?"

"Yeah, they look like your gloves, but they're metal, and have very large claw-shaped hollow things, like shovels."

Knuckles sighed thoughtfully. "Anything else?"

"No, not really. Just those."

"I'll be back there tonight to put the shards back together. Bye."

Knuckles hung up and looked around. He was in the casino part of the Square. He heard a shard noise somewhere in this part of Station Square, but he couldn't home in on it.

"Dang it! Where is it?"

Knuckles circled the Square several times before he realized that the resonance was coming from inside the casino. He had read the "business hours" if you want to call it that and discovered that it did not open until sundown. Being July, the sun won't set 'til almost 9 o'clock.

Fudge. That's another four hours till it opens. Now what? What's he going to do for four hours? Just sit around? That didn't really appeal to him. But…looks like he hasn't got any other choice.

Crud.

Chapter 5: Windy Valley

He was hurling through a stone tube at who knows how fast, the rough wind tearing at his fur. It was dark in there except for a light overhead that got slowly closer and brighter. He had curled himself together to avoid getting smacked by debris in vulnerable areas, such as his face.

Not much later, he soared into daylight and into the sky, losing speed as he ascended, then he began to fall back down. He smacked onto a grassy area, and lay there, temporarily stunned. Every part of his skin tingled from the force of the wind.

"Tails?"

Sonic got up, and shivered. "Man, this breeze is chilly." He quickly looked around for Tails, but didn't find him, or anyone for that matter.

"Tails? Where are ya?"

He sprinted to the hole from where he had flown through, peering into the dark chasm, but the wind was still blowing fiercely, and all he could do was squint, and by doing that, he couldn't see much anything.

"Tails? Are you--"

A small, orange furry body shot through the hole like a cannonball from a cannon. Tails smacked into Sonic's unprotected face and sent him sprawling. Tails landed on his side, still and clung to the ground, fingers like talons.

"Is…it…over?"

Sonic was rubbing his face, and was examining his hand for blood. "Yeah, it is. You have a hard back, Tails."

Tails looked at Sonic, still clinging to the ground. "You have a hard face. It's your own fault for putting in that stone!"

"Hey, even you wanted to know what happened if I put it there!"

"Exploring normally doesn't hurt me."

Sonic shrugged and looked around. "Where are we?"

Tails looked around, finally working up the courage to stop gripping the ground like a vice. "I don't know, but it doesn't look like were anywhere close to the Mystic Ruins."

Sonic then said, "Here's a sign: Windy Valley…original."

"Well, it does make sense; it's pretty windy up here."

"Geez, am I a sight." Sonic was staring into a nearby pool, sheltered from the wind and it wasn't rippling as much as you would expect a pond to do during windy weather. "My spines are twisted to and fro. I'm definitely gonna need to break out the gel when we get back to Station Square."

"Yeah, and I'm sure I look like a mess. I don't even wanna think about it."

Sonic was trying to smooth out his head spines to look more presentable, but to no avail; the wind kept blowing them out of position.

"Let's go down to the valley floor; I'm sure it won't be so windy down there," Tails said.

"Ok, skipper. Let's go." Sonic began looking for a trail, but said, "Look at all the windmills!"

They found a trail to the floor, but when they had reached the floor, it was just as windy as the cliff tops, if not more windy.

"This is really strange," Tails said, shivering in the chilly wind. "I never heard a place like this."

"Maybe people didn't wanna talk about it." Sonic took a glance upwards to the sky, and noticed a bank of clouds coming in from behind. "Uh oh, looks like were in for a storm."

Tails looked up at the gathering thunderheads above. "Let's find somewhere to hide; I don't like storms."

"Aw, where's your sense of adventure?" Sonic said in his "don't be chicken" voice. "Storms are awesome, and not all that dangerous."

Before anyone knew what happened, a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and struck a nearby windmill followed by an explosive clap of thunder that knocked Sonic and Tails off their feet. They both stared at the smoldering remains of the windmill.

"On the other hand…"

"I told you!"

Then a rolling rumble shook the ground underneath their feet from the not-so-distant storms.

"I don't like this," Tails said, his fear edging to the surface. "Let's get out of here!"

Then the heavens opened and out poured dense rain that covered the land in a dense curtain of rain, so dense that you couldn't see ten feet.

"I can't see where I'm going!" Tails shouted.

"Neither can I!" Sonic responded back, and shouted again, "Great, my shoes are wet!"

The ground soon grew too saturated to absorb the water, and soon puddles began to form, and they grew bigger puddles. Puddles turned into ponds, ponds into lakes. Soon, the entire valley was flooded!

"Sonic, we got to get out of this valley!" Tails screamed over the torrent. "We could be in for a flash flood if we stay down here!"

"Right, we got to find higher ground!" Sonic shouted back.

"I wish I could fly in this, but I'd get lost too easily!" Tails complained.

"What's with this valley? Fifteen minutes ago, there was a clear sky, windy but clear. Five minutes later, were in for storms. Now, were shin-deep in water! And I can't swim!"

Then, another lightning barrage came and revealed something in the distance.

"Sonic! I saw a cave in the cliff face! Get over here, and I'll try to airlift you to there!"

"At this point, I'm desperate for a cardboard box shelter. Let's go!"

Tails struggled to get to Sonic, for now the water was knee-deep and the current was getting stronger. Tails managed to grab Sonic's hand by sheer luck and jumped into the air, spinning his tails.

The ride was very choppy for the winds were still gust-strength and the water pounded their unprotected hides, but after several attempts, they made it to a ledge that jetted out a short ways out of the cave mouth.

The hustled into the cave, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"We made it!" Tails gasped, and collapsed into a heap on the floor. His fur was dripping from, what Sonic called so many places where he didn't even have places.

Sonic was removing his soggy shoes and wringing out his socks not too deep in the cave, very tired and very wet.

Tails soon got up and did the same, for he hated the feeling of water in his shoes. He spoke to Sonic soon after, and they're voices echoed in the cave.

"Wow, that was close. I've never been so wet and cold before." Tails' voice shuddered with his body's shivering. "How deep do you think this cave goes, Sonic?"

"Not too far; I think I found the back. I'm leaning on something hard."

"What we need is light; A Chaos Emerald would've done great here."

"Well, I have my Power Ring; that glows."

Sonic pulled the cuff up on his glove and pulled out the Power Ring; its golden radiance illuminated the cave. "Yep, I'm leaning against the back wall of the cave."

One of Tails' ears pricked, and he looked around, a little panicked.

"What's wrong--"

"Shh!" Tails quickly shushed Sonic. "Do you hear that?"

Sonic perked his ears up, but didn't hear anything, except the rain outside, which was beginning to slacken. "I don't hear anything."

Then, a sudden roar like a waterfall grew in the distance.

"There! You hear that?" Tails asked.

"Yes," Sonic said, trying to hide his nervousness; that roaring sound did not sound friendly. He looked outside the cave, and saw the source of the noise: A twenty-foot-tall wall of water was careening down the valley at an alarming speed.

"It's a flash flood! Tails, hang on! That wave will hit the cliff below us hard!"

The wave struck the cliff wall with the force of three or four tons per square inch behind it, and, oh, the crash was so loud, it sounded like the whole cliff would crack!

Sonic and Tails plugged their ears and huddled at the rear of the cave as the wall struck the cliff. They felt the very earth shuddered from the might of the flash flood. No wonder people die in these things.

Sonic and Tails took their hands from their ears and looked outside. The valley outside turned into a river gorge, like the Colorado River.

"I've never seen, heard or felt anything like that, Sonic," Tails said, staring in awe as nature was spending her wrath on the valley.

They remained in the cave, staring on as the roaring waters ripped apart the windmills not damaged from the lightning storm.

"This is just not natural," Sonic said. "Storms this bad don't take half an hour to be this destructive…do they?"

Tails shrugged, but then said, "Look! The rain's stopped!"

Sonic stepped out to see if the coast was clear, and then noticed, "The winds died too!"

Tails followed Sonic out of the cave. Indeed, the gusts died down not to just a breeze, but no wind at all.

"And it's freakin' hot out here," Sonic said, beginning to pant.

Tails looked up at the sky, hoping that the black clouds were gone, but they weren't but they were too bizarre: They had bubbled undersides, and they shook and swayed, even twisted.

Tails' stomach was hit with worry. "Sonic, I don't like this…"

Sonic didn't seem to notice. "It looks like it's finally over, but this eerie quiet is getting to me."

Tails noticed that no birds were singing and nothing moved, except the water. It was as if time stood still. That did not relieve him any, for he had read in some books, that some storms when they pause, they can cause the world to be perfectly still, then suddenly unleash its worst fury.

"Sonic…"

"Look at the sky; it's all green!"

"Sonic, this is too dangerous…"

"Here's a trail that leads back up to the top of the cliffs. C'mon, Tails, we can find a way out now!" Sonic began walking up the trail, and a queasy Tails followed, but still kept looking around for any sign of danger.

They had reached the top and nothing happened.

"Well, that was fun, but I don't know about you, but I'm all funned out," Sonic said casually.

Tails didn't respond; his eyes were fixed on something in the distance.

"Tails, are you still with me?"

Tails didn't respond, but Sonic noticed the hairs on the back of his neck were standing at attention.

"Tails?"

Sonic looked into the general direction Tails' eyesight were staring at, and then it clicked: There not two miles away, was a dark-grey funnel cloud that was about to touch the ground. A mass of swirling debris was already forming at the base of the twister.

Sonic only stood there two seconds, then grabbed Tails' hand, and switched all energy that was left into his legs.

Then, the wind struck Sonic's face, and this wind made the gusts earlier to feel like gentle breezes. This wind counteracted his speed, causing Sonic to run only at a measly forty-five miles per hour, and Sonic knew that the tornado was going faster then that.

Then, Tails snapped out of his trance, and saw the tornado gaining on them. "Sonic! That thing is only a couple hundred feet away!"

"I know, but this wind is slowing me down!"

Tails shut his eyes tight and gripped Sonic's other hand with his free hand.

The dust was kicking up around Sonic, causing him to blink as the brown earth began irritating his eyes.

Then, he felt his feet leave the ground permanently.

"Tails, hold on to me!"

If the law of gravity was ever working, it wasn't then as Sonic and Tails climbed higher and higher up the vortex of the tornado. Tails was gripping Sonic's arms as if they were vital to his life (in a way they were) and Sonic kept his eyes shut which were still tearing from the flying dust in the air.

All sense of time and location were blown away with the dust as Sonic and Tails continued to revolve around the blackening funnel, which appeared to be losing strength already.

Sonic had not felt the wind slacken or the noise fade, but what he did feel was that Tails was not at the ends of his arms.

Then the wind quit completely, and he began to fall. Sonic opened his eyes, just in time to see where he was falling to…the roaring river below!

Sonic plunged in like a stone, and his fear for water and his inability to swim soon combined into one violent mixture. Sonic fought his way to the surface, and bubbled out a cry.

"Tails, help!"

He was quickly floating downstream, and he hoped his cry for help carried over the roar of the water. He began to sink down into the torrent.

"HELP!"

His head submerged and his hand remained above the water. Oh, he needed air now, but he couldn't get his head above the water!

Oh, now he was going to die! What will happen after that? What will happen with Eggman, Chaos, Tails and the Knothole crew? Will they be okay?

He didn't even feel his hand grabbed something as he drifted into unconsciousness.

- - - - -

Knuckles was pacing up and down Station Square idly, waiting for the sun to set, but as he waited, time began to shift into slow motion.

"Dang, I hate waiting."

He had passed City Hall and saw the giant clock overhead. It had red 5:37 pm earlier. Crap! He had spent only thirty minutes waiting. It would be another three hours before the casino opened to find that shard.

"Excuse me? Sir?"

Knuckles turned to the speaker, and his eyes traveled up to the speakers head: He was a large purple cat, wearing yellow sandals and yellow leather gloves. He wore a brown leather belt with a brass circular buckle and a tackle box was on his left side, and he carried a green fishing rod. He was at least seven feet tall.

"Yes…"

"My name's Big the Cat, and I'm wondering if you've seen Froggy?"

Knuckles was a little confused. "Who?"

"Froggy, a big green frog and he has a tail."

Knuckles crossed his arms, studying the cat out. "A pet?"

"He's my friend!" Big said indignantly.

Knuckles shrugged. "I haven't seen a green frog with a tail or any frog for that matter."

Big lowered his head and his shoulders slumped. "Aw, I was hoping someone would see him. Well, thanks anyway."

Big began to walk away, then something struck Knuckles: The further away Big walked away, the hum of a shard resonance lessened!

"Hey, Big!" Knuckles jogged after Big.

Big turned, still looking a little sad. "Yes?"

"Uh, I know this maybe a strange question, but…have you seen any broken green glass lying around?"

Big looked a little puzzled, then his ears perked up as if remembering something. He opened his tackle box and pulled out a piece of green glass. "I found this floating on the water near the sand. I thought it looked pretty."

"That's one of the sha--" Knuckles cleared his throat. "I mean pieces of glass I'm looking for."

Big gladly handed the shard back to Knuckles. "Did you break something?"

"Uh…kind of." Knuckles slipped the shard into his backpack, and looked back at Big. "Listen, since you helped me find one of the glass pieces, I'll help you find Froggy for a while."

Big looked ecstatic. "Oh, thank you, Mr…uh…what was your name?"

"Friends call me Knuckles, because of these." Knuckles showed his knuclaws on his gloves; Big looked at them in awe.

"Let's go back to the small dock near the hotel; maybe 'Froggy' is near there. Being a frog, he wouldn't be too far from water," Knuckles suggested.

"Ok."

They walked down the sidewalk toward the small dock which docked only one motorboat at a time. Anyone who had to dock had to move to Emerald Coast and walk the rest of the way.

When they past the turn that lead to the part of the Square that faced the ocean. There, Knuckles saw something, hopping towards a lift-like thing that was colored in neon colors. The sign "Welcome to Twinkle Park" was on the lift, but that didn't catch Knuckles attention; it was the thing hopping to the lift: It was green, large and had a tail.

"Big, do you see that?"

Big looked, and saw the animal. "It's Froggy!"

Knuckles saw the frog hop into the lift, and the lift carried Froggy up to a glass tunnel that led around a bend.

"Thank you for helping me find Froggy, Mr. Knuckles. You're a real pal!" Big shook Knuckles' arm and jogged after Froggy.

Knuckles was shaking the numbness from his arm; that guy sure shakes hands hard.

"Well, now that that's all over, time to get back to work…in less then three hours." Knuckles sighed. This is getting rather tedious.

- - - - -

Sonic saw light, a white light above and it felt warm. Am I in heaven? Sonic thought, and he felt his stomach being compress, and a warm liquid rose to his throat.

He sat up and vomited the water out and gagged, and he fell back and breathed hard, even though it was painful, it felt great.

"Oh, Sonic! I'm glad you're okay!"

Sonic glanced at the speaker. It was Tails.

"Hey, little bro," Sonic wheezed. "Where am I?"

"On a shore near the bottom of the valley," Tails answered. "I heard you cry for help and found you, hand sticking up out of the water. It took me a bit, but I pulled you out of the water. I thought you drowned, so I was trying to force it out!"

Sonic didn't move, but remembered that he was in the river and blacked out. Tails' must've saved him sometime during when he drifted out of consciousness.

"I'm glad I found you though," Tails said, sighing. "Next time, let's not take a tornado back to the Mystic Ruins."

Sonic chuckled, but his lungs ached. How long was he in the river?

He tried to roll himself over so he could get up, but something snagged his side.

"Ow, what's that?"

"What's what?"

Sonic rubbed away the dirt on the part of the ground where it snagged his side, and revealed a sharp, purplish rock. "This strange-looking rock scratched my side."

Tails looked closely at the rock. "That is a strange-looking rock. Wait a minute…" Tails saw that the sides of the rock were faceted, and the part that was sticking out of the ground was too symmetrical to be some ordinary rock. It looked like a jewel, a big jewel, like…a Chaos Emerald!

Tails rapidly dug at the ground in a furious pace, causing dirt to fly and sometimes getting Sonic with the dirt.

"Hey! Watch it!" Sonic sat up and shielded himself from the small dust storm around Tails, but Tails wasn't paying attention. He was too busy digging and trying to unearth this find. After about thirty seconds, he unearthed a large purple gem, point-side up. It was wedged in some tree roots.

Tails whooped, and Sonic looked up and found Tails dancing. "I found one! I found one!"

"You found what?" Sonic said, a little confused.

"A Chaos Emerald! I found the Purple Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic's eyes widened, and he looked into the eight-inch hole that Tails' dug. "You're right! This is great!"

Tails grabbed the Chaos Emerald and pulled. The roots at first didn't give, but since they were rotten did not give much resistance. Tails scooped up his prize, which was covered in dirt and plant matter.

"Ain't it great? I'm going to wash all this junk off." Tails hurried to the river and, making sure that he had a good hold on the Emerald, submerged it, taking it out once in a while to check if all the grime came off.

Sonic stood up and braced himself against a nearby dead tree; that ride down the river took a lot out of him. He felt better now that they found another Emerald, and this one didn't burn when one touches it.

Tails returned with the dripping Emerald. "All the stuff's gone. Should we go back to the Ruins now?"

Sonic shrugged. "We should, but do we even know the way from here?"

Tails looked around; nothing seemed to be familiar. "Hmm, I didn't think of that." He gave the Chaos Emerald to Sonic. "Hold this; I'll airlift back up and see if I can find any familiar landmarks."

Tails jumped into the air and spun his tails, and then he ascended up and over the canyon rim. Sonic waited patiently, looking into the facets of the Chaos Emerald. It was a relief to be able to hold one without being burnt.

A question popped into Sonic's mind: where exactly were the remaining five? Hopefully not one was here in the valley besides the one they have now.

And another question entered Sonic's mind: was their a way to get that red one out of Chaos? Maybe they had to kill him. One thing was for sure. They couldn't let Chaos or Robotnik get any Emeralds they found. Who knows? Maybe Robotnik found another one by now.

Hopefully not.

Right about now, Tails returned from scouting out the area for anything familiar.

"I didn't find anything that we've seen before, but I did find a jungle with a stone pyramid in it, all in a valley, and there's a railroad track that leads into a cliff on one of the cliffs. We can reach it if we walk there. There are no more clouds for now, so we shouldn't be sucked up, washed out or you know."

Sonic stretched. "Ok, then, we'd better juice there. The sun may set in a few hours and the idea of wandering around in a strange place in the dark doesn't appeal to me."

Luckily for Sonic, there was a zigzagging pathway that led up the cliff face and onto the rim. Sonic reached the top, and Tails led the way, after taking back the Chaos Emerald.

It took a good thirty minutes to reach the valley with the jungle, but they eventually found it. Tails pointed to an outcrop of rock with a railway threading its way through a cave.

"There it is. You need me to fly you over there?"

Sonic replied, "Sure, but I should take the Emerald, and you can take me by one hand, k?"

"Ok."

Tails carried Sonic across the valley to the ledge, and got there in time, to Tails at least, for Tails carried Sonic quite a bit this day and was getting tired.

"Gee, Sonic. Did you drink two gallons of water in that river? You're getting heavier," Tails said, panting.

"Maybe it's just this Emerald."

"I don't think that Emerald is that heavy."

Sonic made a mysterious look. "You never know now, do ya?" Sonic grinned and lifted his eyebrows.

They walked through the cave, which resembled a mine except it didn't merge with any paths or shafts; it just kept going. Sonic and Tails didn't go in complete darkness for the Emerald gave out a nice purplish light. And if that wasn't enough, Sonic's Power Ring gave a warm golden glow that illuminated everything within a given radius.

They reached the other end of the railway, which lead to the part of the Mystic Ruins which they were very familiar with; the "courtyard" if you will.

"Ah, we made it." Tails looked sore.

They shuffled their way towards the flat, and being in the sight that they were in, covered with dirt, sand and their fur was twisted in weird patterns from the wind, they drew the stares of some of the wandering explorers, clad in safari hats and beige shirts and shorts.

"Man," one said. "What happened to you?"

Sonic replied coolly, "Oh, we got caught in the mayhem of Windy Valley."

"That would explain the way your fur is tossed and turned like that, but why do you look so wet?"

"Put a big thunderstorm in the valley, and have the rainwater pile up and let it go. That's why were so wet: we were rained on, nearly caught in a flash flood and even got scooped up by a tornado," Sonic answered.

The explorer whistled in amazement. "Sounds like you boys had quite an adventure."

"Yeah, I guess. Now if you excuse us, we need to find a place to wash up and maybe sleep."

"Ok, been nice meeting ya two," The explorer said as Sonic and Tails left.

Two hours, a quick supper, an argument on who gets the first shower, and a coin toss later, they got cleaned, groomed and fed. Tails put the Chaos Emerald in a cage and securely locked it with a combination safe and hid the cage under a tarp…for safe keeping.

Sonic was drying the insides of his ears out with a towel when he casually mentioned, "Why not try that big casino out in Station Square? It should shake off our experience with Tornado Alley back there, don't ya think?"

Tails said, after checking the tarp for the fourth time, "Sure. Maybe we can get enough money to get some cool stuff."

"I can do that. You can have a blast down at the kids' casino, k?"

Tails stood up, trying to pop his fingers. "Ok, let's go before the sun sets. Maybe we can get there early enough to get in before the crowds."

Sonic and Tails made for the train station at a rush, boarded and they were off. Tails didn't realize how tired he was from Windy Valley until he sat down. He dozed off before even the train jolted to leave, and didn't even wake up for that. He laid his head on Sonic's shoulder, and Sonic smiled and looked on.

Chapter 6: Casinopolis

When the sun was low in the sky and the sky slowly changed from blue to gold to red, and the clouds turned pink and bluish, Knuckles found himself standing in front of the casino with almost a hundred other people. Knuckles was pushed about, and he did his share of pushing that time before the doors opened.

It was 8:57 pm when the sun was halfway down and all eyes stared at the glass doors and one of the clerks there, unlocked the doors and quickly braced the wall. Knuckles was nearly trampled as the whole crowd poured in at once. When he finally got inside, the first thing that hit him was the noise! Oh, the noise! Not even a rocket engine running on full power could be heard in this din! He had a hard time hearing the resonance of the shard in here because of the chaos.

Knuckles stuck to the outward circle where the crowds weren't so dense, but the going still was hard. He stepped on a piece of freshly-chewed gum near the fountain.

"Aw gee. There's a trash can nearby too! Couldn't they hold it for another two feet?"

Knuckles spent five minutes picking the sticky pink gum of his shoe and threw the strands into the trash. What he wouldn't give to find out the name of the jerk who put that gum there right about now…

His thoughts were interrupted when someone yelled something.

"Hey, you!"

Knuckles looked around. Were they calling him?

"Hey, you! Red guy with the long hair?"

Long hair? He stomped to the source of the voice, which was a poker table with three poker sharks sitting around him. "They're called 'dreadlocks,' you jerk!" He called to the one to his left.

"Whatever," he said, shrugging non-caringly. "What I was trying to say to you was if you wanted to play some rounds here? We always play with four hands, and we need one."

"I'm busy," Knuckles replied gruffly, his distrust for gamblers rising.

"What, are you chicken?" the one opposite of the gambler that Knuckles was talking said.

Knuckles nearly lost his cool. He virtually leapt to the guy's neck and grabbed his collar. Knuckles pulled the guys head level with his own.

"I am not chicken, bonehead!"

The gambler couldn't resist. "Prove it."

Knuckles pushed the gambler's face away with so much force; the guy nearly fell over backwards on the chair.

"Deal the cards already, I'll show you guys that no Echidna is chicken."

Knuckles was still smoldering from the insult and was plotting to teach the guy a lesson as the cards were dealt.

Maybe after I find the part of the Master Emerald, and then, I hope your health insurance policy is paid up, Knuckles thought as he picked up the cards.

- - - - -

Sonic and Tails had arrived at the casino thirty minutes after Knuckles had entered. They had stopped by the Sunset Resort, and they added Tails to Sonic's room. It would've cost more, but they were having a summer special where you book a room for one, you can book a roommate in for free.

They stopped by Sonic's room where Tails put a few of his belongings, and Sonic got fifty more bucks of cash.

Then, they took the elevator down and went to Casino Square, the casino half of Station Square. When they had entered, the noise didn't have the same effect as it did Knuckles. Tails winced a little, but decided he better get used to it, for he was heading to the kids' casino; a bed of chaos.

They agreed to be in this joint till midnight, which gave them three hours. Tails wasn't so tired since he got a fifteen-minute cat nap on the train, but now he was ready for action.

Sonic first went to the slot machines, tried ten times, but only got about five dollars more in cash. Net-wise, that would be only two dollars and fifty cents earned. Not a really good start. Maybe he should hit the Roulette tables…

Tails on the other hand was in for a surprise. When he got to the kids' section, the first thing he did was scope the place for the most-redeemable ticket machines.

In the kids' casino, you play games to win tickets: the better you do the more tickets you get. It may be considered a casino, but the tickets can only be redeemed in games favoring skill and ability, like skeeball: the game where you have to roll a ball up a ramp and into certain scoring holes. The whole place might be called a "gambling-free casino" for just about nothing was by chance.

Tails stopped by the prize counter, and looked through the assorted prizes. The bigger or better the prize, the more tickets you need to earn to redeem it.

There wasn't much anything interesting up on the top rack, where all the big-prize ones were held, and he lazily looked them over: just a big teddy bear, some moon boots, a pair of jet-anklets (oh, those might be nice), an oriental-looking marble game that glowed in the dark, some walkie-talkie pairs, a white glowing gem, a small boom-box, a--

White gem? thought Tails in shock. He quickly looked back and saw a large, white, glowing gem on the highest rack of them all. The White Chaos Emerald!

Tails barely contained himself as he gazed at the white gem. Then his eyes found the ticket number necessary to obtain it: 3500 tickets, the highest ticket count of the whole play area.

He headed for the nearest ticket spouting game in a flurry of feet. He only had three hours to obtain the Emerald; that meant he needed to collect more then 1000 tickets each hour, maybe more so he can count them in time! Oh, better not waste time; he was not a fox on a mission!

- - - - -

Knuckles grew tired of playing poker, and had gathered a good 500 dollars from the tables, and stuffed all the cash into a safe. Now, for the shard; it could be anywhere in this place, and with his luck, it could be in the trash.

Maybe if he walked around the circumference of the outer circle for a change, he'll have a better idea where the shard is…besides, he needed to still cool off from that jerk at the poker tables. A hot temper will quickly make you lose a battle, but still…

Ah, forget trying to forget it, idiot, thought Knuckles to himself. What needs to be done is to find that dang shard!

He heard the shard resonance everywhere he went, and there was only a slight change…if any.

Knuckles growled. Dang it! Where's that freaking shard?

- - - - -

Sonic had gathered up to 700 dollars from a Roulette table. His luck there didn't come easy, for he had lost over half of the money he brought there alone, before a sudden change of luck caused the ball to land on his number, while everyone had betted heavy numbers on other numbers. Sonic couldn't help smiling to himself when he had won, although some punk accused him of cheating.

Yeah, like I caused time to hold still and put the ball there, yeah, uh huh, likely story…

Sonic wished for a watch at that particular moment, for he wasn't sure how long he was at the Roulette tables. He hoped there was a clock nearby of some sort.

"Psst."

Sonic looked around for the source of the sound. It must be close since he heard it in this ruckus.

"Psst, you, blue hedgehog!"

Sonic looked around again, and saw someone who he swore was not there five minutes before: It was a black rat with piercing red eyes and long yellow front teeth. He wore a dark green trench coat that made his black fur look like a shadow.

"Yo, rat. Are you talking to me?"

The rat looked insulted. "Do you see any other blue hedgehogs around here?"

Geez, who spit in this vermin's oatmeal? "No, I guess not. Now what do you want, rat?"

Sonic was very distrustful of this rat, for it was no secret that rats were treacherous and he heard of no good coming from them. They took up occupations like conmen, muggers, drug dealers and what not.

"I have something of interest to you, Sonic Hedgehog. That is who you are, no?" The rat had an accent that sounded Eastern European (if there was one like it on Möbius).

"Yes…" Sonic looked the rat up and down for anything suspicious; he could be holding heroine or morphine in those pockets.

"Well…I can't show it here. I'll show you when we find a secure location. Follow me."

Sonic blurted out. "No! I'm not going anywhere! Why should I go with you so you can give me something that you won't show when there is a crowd? You're not doing anything…illegal, are ya?" Sonic looked threateningly at the rat.

The rat didn't seem to change any emotion. "You would think otherwise if you know what was in this box, Sonic Hedgehog." The rat pulled out a box the size of a shoebox. Sonic jumped back on impulse, thinking "time bomb!"

"You assume too much, Sonic." The rat pulled the box lid up some, and the fresh aroma of leather shoes leaked out. Sonic took a close look inside: It didn't appear to be anything illegal, just a pair of shoes like the pair he had on.

"So, they're shoes that I got." Sonic showed his shoes.

"That's where you're mistaken," said the rat coolly. He turned the box 'round and opened the box on that side: The ankle-side of the shoes revealed "highlights," large, thick highlights that were meant for serious speed.

"These, Sonic, are just the item you need: These are the envied TurboValue Lightspeed Shoes, a rare piece hot off the assembly line, and are only meant for the serious runner…such as yourself."

Two conflicting options hit Sonic like a boulder: One, buy the shoes and trust this rat…for once. Two, ignore him and lose the opportunity for better running equipment but maybe avoiding something unknown.

"Let me see one of the shoes." Sonic held out his hand, but the rat objected.

"No, we must go to the privacy of a men's stall. No one will see us talking about the newest thing in shoe fashion."

Sonic growled in self-conflict, but said, "All right, vermin, but let me tell you something: If you try anything funny, you'll find yourself picking blue quills from your face…got it?"

The rat ignored him, and said, "Just come on, or miss out; your choice."

Sonic crossed his arms. "Then lead the way."

The rat skillfully led Sonic through the crowd and to a men's stall, which also had a row of showers opposite the stalls. They both ducked into a wide stall, and bolted the door.

The rat pulled out the shoe and handed it quickly to Sonic; Sonic looked it over, searching for false bottoms, hidden slots, or anything that could signify something bogus. After a good five minutes, he found nothing, except a white powder packet inside the shoe, but the same thing was in the other shoe, so he assumed that it was some air freshener of some sort.

"Well, Mr. Hedgehog? Are you satisfied?"

Sonic grudgingly admitted, "Yes, there's nothing phony here, but now there's something else: price. How much do you want for such a 'hot item?'"

"I'm glad you asked that, for I'm a shrewd businessman. It all depends on the value of the product and how much work for me it took to get--"

"Oh, quit the speech and give me the price already."

"Oh, I would assume that 600 dollars cash will cover it."

"Six hundre--!"

The rat quickly shushed Sonic. "Yes, 600 dollars; now, all in advance." The rat held out a gloved paw.

Sonic thought about the price. 600 bucks, geez, what a rip! But still, I have the money…

Before he knew it, he handed the rat the desired amount.

"Wise decision, Mr. Hedgehog. You are the first person on Möbius to get the TurboValue Light--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever." Sonic unlatched the door and left, for he didn't want to spend another second with the likes of him.

Sonic left the restrooms and made for his safe, but was stopped by a security guard on the way.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Sonic was a little stunned at the fact he was stopped. "Yeah?"

"May I ask you what the contents of that box are?"

Sonic shrugged and lifted the lid of the box. "They're shoes."

The officer picked up one shoes and examined it briskly, and the first thing he questioned was the little bag of white powdery stuff that came out of the inside of the shoe.

"Sir, may I ask you what this is?"

"Uh, I thought it was a leather air freshener."

"Yes, so it would seem…" The officer put the shoe back in the box, but kept the packet. "Come with me, sir."

"What? What'd I do?"

The officer took one of Sonic's arms into his grip.

"Nothing that it seems, but if I were you, I'd tell the people you are going to meet everything."

Sonic gulped audibly, and he wished he never laid eyes on those shoes.

- - - - -

Two hours later…

Tails was taking a break from almost constant game playing, and was busy counting his tickets.

"That spinning light game was too easy; I got the thirty ticket mark all the times if I didn't get the jackpot."

He was counting tickets by pairs, but since there were so many, it took him a good fifteen minutes to count the all.

The ending result: 2,539 tickets, less then 1,000 tickets short for the Chaos Emerald.

"Aw nuts; I'm still short!" He quickly looked at the time, and nearly freaked that he had less then forty-five minutes to get those remaining tickets!

He made for the last game he was at in a mad dash, nearly tripping over the strands of tickets that hung from every bone of his body. He had to get that Emerald!

- - - - -

Knuckles was getting tired of his lack of progress of finding the shard, and was slowly beginning to brood. But after his tenth time walking the circumference of the outer circle, he spotted something that he had never noticed on the previous walks: An elevator leading to the top floor!

Now that's progress! If the shard is above me, I should be able to find it up there!

Knuckles quickly climbed into the elevator and nearly jammed his finger pressing the top floor button.

Casinopolis had only two floors, and the top one was the smallest, for the outer circle was the only circle on the second floor. Where the inner circle would've been was the head of the biggest brass statue Knuckles had seen. It was a statue of a Grecian-dressed woman holding up a model of the world, and the globe reached above the second floor.

When he had reached the top floor, the noise was now louder, and he began circling the floor again, and not even halfway through his first round, the noise rang so loud that he thought it would break his brain. It must be very close now!

He looked around and found a trashcan. He sprinted toward it, looking around the trashcan for shards and then dug into the trash. He didn't dig too deep when he found a piece of green glass, sitting inside an old Styrofoam cup.

There, now the last shard in Station Square was found! Now he could get back to Angel Island that night with over twenty shards!

But before that, he had some unfinished business downstairs to take care of…

- - - - -

Sonic was taken into a room behind all the hustle and bustle of the gamblers outside, and was asked to sit down on a plain chair in front of a mahogany desk. The man behind the desk was a grey-haired man who was wearing a black suit with a blood-red tie. This guy was clearly a head investigator, which did not make Sonic feel better.

"Now, we'll keep this as simple as possible. I'm Senior Investigator Dalton, and I head the drug department of the Sapphire City Police."

"So, what has this to do with me?" Sonic was feeling lost.

"We'll get to that soon enough, but we need to start by asking you for identification. First of all, your name."

"Sonic Hedgehog, no middle initials unless you call 'the' a middle name." Sonic smirked.

"Address."

Sonic shrugged. "Heck, I dunno; I live in a village over a hundred miles north of here; it's called Knothole."

"Good enough; any medical problems relating to drug overdose?"

"No," Sonic felt unsure what to think.

"Ok, how about any convictions on drug dealing?"

Sonic paused. "No."

Dalton seemed to note the pause. "Now we now can get to the basics; the reason why you are here."

"Oh, I can hardly wait," Sonic said sarcastically.

"The reason why we brought you in here is that box there;" Dalton pointed to the shoebox on the desk. "We found something inside one of the shoes that is a violation to the drug regulation policies."

Sonic blanched. "There's an illegal drug inside my shoes?"

Dalton pulled out the white powder packet. "We're not sure what, but after dealing with cases like this, you could be carrying at least 500 milligrams of morphine in your shoes."

Sonic was stunned, and looked angrily at the door behind him. He growled, "I'm gonna thrash that rat…"

Dalton appeared not to notice. "Now what we want to know is where did you get such a heavy dose of morphine?"

Sonic turned back to Dalton, his eyes rimmed with red. "I'll tell you everything that I know."

"That's all we ask." Dalton folded his hands and placed them on the desk in front of him, intending on listening to every detail.

Sonic recounted his little encounter with this rat in a trench coat, and after some persuasion, showed him the shoes and later sold them to him for 600 bucks.

Another officer was writing all the info down while Dalton asked a few further questions.

"Can you describe this 'rat' in detail so we can form a record?"

"Sure; his fur was black, he wore a dark green trench coat, brownish gloves…oh! He had bright red eyes and long pointed yellow teeth, especially the front ones."

Dalton slapped a hand on the desk, slightly surprising Sonic.

"I thought so," said Dalton. "That rat is none other then Murphy Morgan, nicknamed 'Morphine Morgan' by my staff. He's a major drug dealer, and we have found that he has

sold many dangerous substances illegally: morphine, heroine, opium, a substance similar to old laudanum, you name it, he sold it. He tends to hide the drug inside something desirable, only to be found later, hoping to frame the victim."

"So, I was just another victim that he passed powder to." Sonic slapped a fist into his palm. "Man, would I love to leave some quills in him right now…"

"We thanks you Sonic Hedgehog for your cooperation, and we hope to finally put a stop to this sneak. Sorry for any inconvenience, but well need to keep the shoes until any trace of illegal painkillers are gone."

"No prob, but I'll just ask you one thing: Can I hunt this guy down, I mean, he does have money illegally."

"If you can catch him, we may even reward you."

"Now that's a yes if I ever heard on. Ciao."

Sonic bolted for the door, opened it and began rat hunting.

- - - - -

Fifteen minutes to go…

Tails was virtually buried in tickets as he only has two fingers on each hand to use to operate any controls. Some kids stopped playing and decided that watching a young two-tailed fox buried up to his armpits in tickets and playing with the same enthusiasm like that he wasn't aware of the growing pile of tickets surrounding him was much more interesting then playing video games.

Tails was focused on just one thing: The Chaos Emerald on the display case. At the rate he was going, he may be quite a bit late to meet Sonic by midnight.

I hope he won't mind; after all, when I do get that Emerald, he may not be mad about it. After all, we are hunting down Chaos Emeralds before Eggman.

He then wondered what Sonic was up to begin with. I hope he still has money…

- - - - -

Knuckles was marching down some stairs that he found which led back down to the bottom floor. He knew where "his business" would be, and had a very good surprise for that guy at the poker tables.

If he was not so focused on finding that poker shark, he would've noticed a certain blue hedgehog who also had a personal goal, and his course was perpendicular to Knuckles' and they were due to run into each other.

Knuckles was thus engaged when he felt someone run into him from his side. Instinctively, he pushed him aside.

"Watch where you're going, creep!"

Sonic was about to object, but saw the person he ran into.

"Knuckles?"

Knuckles turned when he heard his name spoken. "Sonic?"

"What are you doing here of all places?" Sonic exclaimed.

"Me? What are YOU doing here?"

Sonic began, "Tails and I were here for some time now…"

"You brought Tails into a casino?" Knuckles was slightly angry at the fact that Sonic would stoop so low to bring a kid into a place like this.

"Not in here!" Sonic pointed to the ground, emphasizing the fact about the whole room. "He's in the kids' casino, which was around the bend at the front door."

"Then answer my question: What are you doing here?" Knuckles crossed his arms.

"Well, I was getting a fast buck when…" Sonic recounted all that happened with the rat, the shoes, and the small interrogation with the security guards.

Knuckles listened to the whole story still thinking about what he was here to do after he found the shard.

Sonic ended his story and asked Knuckles what he was doing here.

"It's some…business you might say."

"Oh yeah, what kind?"

"I can't talk about it here; next time we meet, hopefully in a better place, I'll tell you more about it, but now, I have someone to meet."

Sonic didn't feel right about the tone Knuckles' voice dropped to when he said the last part. "Oh yeah, who?"

Knuckles did a quick search at the poker tables and found the poker shark who had insulted him. "You'll find out."

With that, Knuckles marched towards the poker tables. Sonic suddenly felt he knew what was going to happen and snuck to get a better view.

What he did see was Knuckles tapping the guy on the shoulder from behind, the guy turning with a gruff expression, and Knuckles landing an upper cut on the guy's jaw.

- - - - -

Tails knew he was late to meet Sonic, but didn't care. Sonic will forgive him when he shows that Chaos Emerald he felt sure he won. He began counting tickets at a bench away from the crowd. That alone took him a good thirty minutes and he knew it must be past midnight already.

Final count: 5,076 tickets.

"Wow! Not only I got that Emerald but I can something else at the same time! What luck!"

He carried the whole mound of tickets to the register booths, which was quite a feat for he had to tilt his head to see around the ticket mound. When he had got to a ticket counting booth, he furiously began loading tickets into the counter machines, off away from the crowd of kids around the game-place.

He knew that sometimes the counter was always a bit off, but he didn't care. He won a Chaos Emerald; that's two in one day! What a day!

The count reading on the machine read 5070.

Off by six, not bad. What can you get with only six tickets anyway?

The machine printed a receipt that read the number of counted tickets, and he rushed to the front counter where the prizes were stored. There was a line there as dozens of kids were redeeming their prizes.

When his turn came up, he gave the receipt to the lady working there.

"Wow, you've been busy. How long were you here?"

"About three and a half hours." Tails was barely containing himself.

"Well, that's work. Now, what can I get you to reward such hard work?"

Tails looked up at the prizes: The Chaos Emerald was 3500 tickets, and the jet-anklets were 1400. Quickly adding that up in his head, he reasoned that all together that would cost 4900 tickets. That left 170 tickets.

"Well, I'd like a pair of those jet anklets and maybe that diamond thingy up there," Tails answered, trying his beat to sound disinterested, but wasn't completely successful.

The clerk looked puzzled and seemed to notice Tails' ulterior motive. "Why that big diamond?"

"I like shiny things." Tails tried to remain lucid, so to show that he didn't know what that was.

The clerk climbed up a ladder to reach the Emerald, having private thoughts of her own. She put the jet-anklets into the bag and then put the Chaos Emerald into the sack.

As she gave the bag with the two items in it, she asked about what was he going to do with the last 170 tickets.

Tails thought about it. "Well, what is under 170 tickets here, besides cheap toys?"

The clerk looked under the counter, and suddenly said. "Well, we have some nice watches here for 150."

"That sounds cool. Can I see one?"

The clerk withdrew a metallic, silver-colored watch with a metallic-green face.

"That looks good; I'll take it."

The clerk put the watch into the sack, and gave the sack to Tails. The sack was pretty large carrying three items in all, and Tails had to carry it with both hands.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the look on Sonic's face when I tell him I won a Chaos Emerald." Tails told himself.

When he reached the front door, he heard a ruckus from the main casino.

"What in the world is going on there?"

Tails tried to see, but being shorter then people in general, he couldn't.

"Rats, I can't see anything. It must be a fight of some kind."

Suddenly, he saw a body of a man, dressed in black come flying by, and followed by the unmistakable silhouette of Knuckles, running after the body.

"Knuckles?" Tails' eyes popped open.

Knuckles didn't seem to notice Tails, and pounced on the man, who began to rise and was obviously ready to spit flames. They took their fight outdoors as they rolled outside, and some of the crowd followed.

Then, he saw someone in the crowd that he was looking for.

"Sonic!"

The blue hedgehog's ears pricked and his head turned to Tails. "Oh, heya, Tails!"

Sonic came strolling towards Tails. "What have you been up to tonight?"

"Sonic, you wouldn't believe it. Check out what I have in this bag!"

Tails reached into his bag and pulled out the White Chaos Emerald.

"Dude! You found another one?"

"Yeah! I won it for over 3000 tickets! Awesome, huh?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself. Now, c'mon, I gotta pick up something in an investigator's office."

"Investigator? What'd you do?"

"Nothin'. Just needed some answers, and I had to leave something there for them to check out. Don't worry; I'll get them back."

"Them?"

"Just c'mon and see."

Sonic led Tails to the investigator's office, where they heard some gruff talking inside.

"Hmm, I wonder what's up. Oh well…" Sonic knocked on the door, a guard opened the door.

"State your business," The guard barked.

"I left something here when the investigator had to ask me questions. Can I get that something back?"

"Maybe. Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog; I was here earlier."

"I see…" The guard closed the door and after several seconds, came back. "You came at a good time; the Senior Investigator needs you to identify someone."

"Ok, let me in."

The guard showed Sonic to the chair where sat a rat in a green trench coat.

Tails saw Sonic's spines rise.

"YOU!" Sonic yelled in rage.

"You know this suspect then," said Investigator Dalton.

"Yes!" Sonic clenched his fists. "That's the rat that sold me the drug-ridden shoes!"

"Drug-ridden shoes?" Tails shouted in surprise.

"You liar!" hissed the rat.

"Shut up!" barked Dalton. "Now you have just been identified by a witness, and we found a total of 600 dollars worth of cash on you, money equivalent to what Mr. Hedgehog here has testified he bought the shoes with. I think that's more then enough evidence to convict you. Are you going to confess?"

"No! It's all a set up!"

Sonic noticed that the rat's red eyes seemed redder then ever.

"And I think you're lying to us. Jones and Cranmer?"

The two security guards at the door marched up to along side the rat.

"Take Morgan here to the station. I'm sure the officers there will love what we have to show."

As the two guards hauled Morgan out another door, he hissed curses at Sonic all the way.

Sonic looked smug. "Now that he's gone, what about my shoes?"

"We have analyzed your shoes, but no more drugs have been identified. You have your shoes back, Mr. Hedgehog…with your money back."

Dalton handed Sonic a wad of grimy bills that Sonic had won at the Roulette tables before.

"Great! Now, let's get out of here, Tails, and take our prizes back to the hotel!"

They exited the office and went out the front door. It was 1 AM by now, and clearly Sonic and Tails were getting bushed. Sonic was holding the Chaos Emerald to look it over. That was the case when trouble found them.

They were halfway to the hotel when they heard the sound of engines. Then suddenly, they heard someone shout.

"Aha! I found you now!"

Sonic and Tails turned and saw Dr. Robotnik in his hovercraft careening straight toward them.

"Tails! Duck!"

Tails hit the dirt while Sonic jumped to avoid being smacked by the metal body of the hovercraft. But when he jumped, he lost grip of the Chaos Emerald, which landed on its side on the sidewalk. Tails saw it first.

"Oh no! The Chaos Emerald!" Tails got up and ran palms forward to grab the Chaos Emerald.

"Oh, no you don't!" said Dr. Robotnik.

Robotnik maneuvered his craft to be between Tails and Sonic, who was also dashing towards the Chaos Emerald, and he opened the front vents of the craft, and a purple gas sprayed out and into the faces of Sonic and Tails.

"Aw, geesh!" Sonic cried, stunned and holding up his hands over his face.

Tails was hacking and gagging at first, but then his eyes began to droop. "Sonic…I don't feel…right."

Sonic was trying to maintain his balance, but was not succeeding.

"Ah, aren't the two boys sleepy now? Ho hum, so sad," taunted Robotnik, as he grabbed the Chaos Emerald with the claw he had.

Tails had flopped forward onto the cement, unconscious, while Sonic was still fighting a loosing battle with the knock-out gas.

"Nighty night, kiddies." Robotnik laughed and steered away.

"Egg…ma…man," Sonic spoke, then fell into a heap in the gutter, dead to the world.

Chapter 7: The First Vision  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knuckles was patching a few scrapes from the fight on the pavement; he was sitting not too far from the casino doors.

"That guy, even if a jerk, did fight well. Man, these will be sore later," Knuckles muttered to himself.

While thus engaged, a small, pink light flew out of the night sky. Knuckles had noticed it, thinking it to be a very bright falling star, and thought nothing of it. Then, the light fluttered around Knuckles head, and Knuckles batted it away, but then the light backed away and suddenly, the light around it intensified, eliminating every shadow around, causing Knuckles to blink and shield his eyes.

"What's this all about?"

Suddenly, the light faded, and Knuckles looked around.

"Wha--? Where am I?"

He was standing in an ancient city, complete with stone buildings, sacrificial altars and even a grand pyramid in the center. What stunned him the most was, he was standing in broad daylight.

"I don't remember being here before…but…something about it…" he rubbed his chin. "…is familiar."

Knuckles began walking around the area. He noticed a number of murals on the sides of some buildings, showing this like past wars, city life, and some of the royal family. He noticed that there were lots of mosaics of snakes on the grounds.

"Hmm, I remember reading of a nation who worshipped the god of snakes, but that was wiped out over one thousand years ago…what's going on here?"

He saw many soldiers walking around the pyramid, the same species as Knuckles and armed with some swords and gloves like Knuckles: white, made of tough cotton and had two knuclaws protruding from the "back" side of the hand. Each soldier wore straps of white around their midriffs, and on their backs they had knives and some had firearms.

Knuckles was pretty much ignored by the soldiers, being an Echidna like them, and walked through unbothered. It was when he came to a long stone path leading to two large bronze doors in the hillside is when things changed: He came upon two Echidnas, quite differently dressed from the warriors nearer to the pyramid. One was a husky, large he-Echidna with mahogany fur and was dressed in ceremonial clothing and a ceremonial mask, propped back out of the face of the Echidna. The other was a young girl, bore orange fur, and she wore white sandals, a headband with a blue sapphire in the center and wore a multi-colored dress with her midriff exposed. She must've been at least thirteen.

The two appeared to be in conversation, and Knuckles walked quietly toward the two, hoping not to get noticed, and hoping to hear what the two were speaking of.

He heard their voices from a good twenty feet away, and the younger spoke.

"Father! Don't do it! They are our brothers!"

"Tikal, those seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master are essential out our people's survival. Without them, we will be wiped out if the Guardian's people even have a notion of attacking us. We must prevent our potential destruction. You are too young to understand," the he-Echidna, which Knuckles assumed to be the chieftain, said.

"How can I make you understand?" Tikal pleaded. "How can fighting, stealing and killing our brothers bring peace to our world? And no one has the right to take the holy grounds where the Emeralds reside."

The chieftain appeared to ignore her, but she kept trying. "I beg you father! Don't invade the holy grounds!"

Knuckles was thinking about what he heard, closing his eyes and shaking his head. What is the meaning of this? Knuckles thought.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was standing in one the main lobby of a hotel, the Sunset Resort in fact, and he saw the lights of Casinopolis behind him through the doors. It was night outside and maybe a little after 1:15 AM.

"Huh? What? I'm in here? What happened and…how'd I get in here?" Knuckles thought out loud. "This is very strange."

He heard the doors opened to his side, and in marched the last person he expected: Dr. Robotnik!

"Hey! What's he doing here?" Knuckles saw a glimpse of something in Robotnik's hand. He wasn't sure, but it did look like a shard from where he stood. "He must've heard about the Master Emerald and is after the shards too!"

The doctor had entered an elevator, and Knuckles ran up to the elevator. He watched the floor indicator sign above the doors, and saw that it stopped at floor 7, the top floor.

Knuckles ran into the elevator beside the one he was standing in front of before, and pressed the "7" button.

It was a bit of a long ride, but uneventful. The doors opened and saw that the top floor was a restaurant that was opened twenty-four hours. The sky light above displayed the night sky looking down on Station Square, but Knuckles didn't care; he was after someone who was here.

He saw Dr. Robotnik waddle to a stage at one end of the room, which was decorated with Stonehenge-like stones, pillars and all, and Knuckles marched towards him, thinking up several different ways to punish Robotnik with.

The doctor had his back turned when Knuckles barked, "Robotnik?"

Robotnik spun around. "Why, if it isn't Knuckles, and what brings you here in the middle of the night?"

"Like why should I tell you? What you should say is that you'll give me back that shard of the Master Emerald!"

"Oh, this isn't part of your precious little gem…" Robotnik unfolded his hand and showed the White Chaos Emerald, recently stolen from Tails, to Knuckles.

Knuckles mentally kicked himself. That wasn't a shard, and even if it was, he would've heard the resonance! Knuckles grudgingly admitted, "Uh, I guess your right."

The doctor smiled. "That's okay though, for I need a guinea pig to test the power of this Chaos Emerald, and I think you'll do perfectly." The doctor waved his hands dramatically. "Chaos! Chaos!"

"Chaos?" Knuckles thought in confusion, out loud.

In response, a nearby fountain in the center of the room overflowed as the waters poured out. But instead of flowing everywhere as water would normally do, it gathered into one spot and soon solidified into the water creature Knuckles had fought two nights before.

"Hey! It's that creature again!" Knuckles recognized it, even though the right arm had been reinforced with a cartilaginous skeleton, with a red object imbedded in the wrist. "Thanks for bringing him along, Doc. Now I'll get him good!" Knuckles pounded his fists together and took a defensive stance.

Robotnik tossed Chaos 1 the Chaos Emerald, which broke the watery skin at the shoulder, and sank down into the torso region. Then, Chaos melted down with a bright white flash, causing Knuckles to blink.

When the light faded, and Chaos had reappeared, he had both arms reinforced and his shoulders widened, like a body builder's. His head spines grew out and extended backwards and to the side, looking like over-exaggerated shark fins.

Robotnik laughed in glee at the transformation of Chaos. "Way to go, Chaos!"

Knuckles scoffed, secretly amazed at Chaos' transformation, "Ha, changing shape won't make me turn tail!"

Knuckles charged swinging a fist forward with enough force behind it to break a 4-inch thick wall made of concrete, but Chaos 2 melted into the floor, leaving a wet spot where Chaos once was.

Knuckles was surprised at Chaos' disappearance, but was even more surprised when Chaos reformed and sent Knuckles flying by grabbing onto the legs and slinging him away behind Chaos.

Knuckles landed squarely on his back, slightly stunned, but rolled to the side, avoiding a claw punch that put two nice holes in the floor where Knuckles once lay. Knuckles got up and ran from Chaos 2, who was advancing on Knuckles for another try.

This is insanity! I can't fight this guy without getting smashed up! I got to hit him before he can hit me, but how? Knuckles thought, as he circled the circumference of the room as Chaos began to close in.

Some idea came apparent in his head for a good trick that could open up Chaos' defenses. Play dead!

Knuckles dropped to the ground, not moving. Chaos 2 was a little confused at this, and stomped up to Knuckles, who was still not moving.

What is this guy up to? Chaos thought, as he leaned over the limp body of Knuckles, hands on the ground to support his position. His face was two feet from Knuckles' and one of Knuckles' eyes opened slightly.

Suddenly, Knuckles let fly an upper cut to the jaw that broke through the liquid flesh of the monster and into the brain from the underside.

Chaos exploded with a shriek of pain, a sound that sounded like a raptor scream. Knuckles' blood chilled as he heard that shriek echo across the room.

Knuckles immediately got up and searched for Chaos, who was reforming at the other end of the room, and was clearly angry. Balls of energy formed at the hands, red and white colors, and he threw them at Knuckles.

Knuckles dodged to the left as the energy balls hit two pillars. The pillars had large gouges in the and promptly collapsed, bringing part of the support of the upper stone down with a crash. Knuckles did not have to imagine what those balls would've done if they had struck home.

But no time for what would've had happened, the here and now was what he should be doing.

Chaos 2 was stomping up to Knuckles, intending to pick him up and throw him across the room again, but Knuckles was ready this time; he somersaulted and rolled between Chaos' legs, and Chaos was hitting the ground, nanoseconds behind Knuckles. Knuckles got up and hit Chaos from behind and through the neck, hitting the brain dead center.

Chaos melted down in a splash, and Knuckles kept an eye on the puddle which was moving around the stage, and slowly reformed into Chaos.

Chaos blew up like a balloon and turned into a large globe of water, the size of a bus, and began bouncing towards Knuckles, each bounce sending a wave of energy that was short-range but powerful.

Being crushed by a ball of water after hitting Chaos twice didn't exactly agree with Knuckles, who was beginning to tire of this whole escapade. He ran up under the ball, and gave the ball a mighty punch, which sent the ball flying and crashed into some of the "stones of Stonehenge," wrecking them and Chaos reformed into the creature he was.

Knuckles did not decide to wait until he was fully reformed; he charged, and as the brain ignited again into a bright red glow, Knuckles leapt up and brought a fist down on it like a hammer to a nail.

Chaos exploded, and retreated. Knuckles was bushed, sweating and panting. Chaos was also worn out, for he had not reformed, but Knuckles knew where he was, for two energy balls, one red and one white, floated in a circle in one place, indicating where Chaos was.

"So what if you won this time?" Robotnik stepped into the circle and pointed at Knuckles. "Chaos has only two Emeralds, meaning he still far from revealing his true power."

"Yeah, yeah, still doesn't faze me, doctor." Knuckles stood proudly, tired but proudly.

Robotnik turned and left towards an elevator. "I know something that might: It's about Sonic…"

Knuckles was interested. "Sonic? What about him, besides he's a sucker for casinos?"

Robotnik was still walking slowly, as if intending to tell Knuckles everything, but still hid it. "He's after those shards of the Master Emerald too, you know."

"What? You're telling me that Sonic is after the Master Emerald? Bull crap! Why would he be anyway, Mr. Needs-to-go-on-diet?" Knuckles put his hands at his sides.

Robotnik turned as if irritated. "You're not the only one on a wild goose chase, idiot! Why should I spoil you're fun?"

With that, Robotnik left in the elevator, and Chaos must've left too as the balls of energy dissipated.

Knuckles was confused. "C'mon, Knuckles. Robotnik's lying; Sonic couldn't be after the Master Emerald…would he?" Knuckles scratched his head. "I'll sleep on it, I guess. This is too much to take in."

Knuckles dug around in his backpack, which was full of little glowing shards, all humming in a low resonance as they were closer to each other, and pulled out a small dish with four legs.

"Good thing I brought this baby. I should be able to get back to Marble Gardens this way then walking the thirty-five miles to there."

Knuckles put the dish down, and typed something on a small computer on one of the legs. Then, he stepped onto the dish, which lit up and sent a bluish beam of energy out and Knuckles disappeared like an image turning off on a TV screen. A few seconds later, the dish flipped around and sent out another beam, and the dish itself disappeared, leaving the place empty, wrecked though.

Chapter 8: The Mystic Blue Mountains  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic was shivering with cold, and was dreaming of being swept down a river inhabited by killer whales made of water and, and being chased by a colossal tornado with money swirling around the base.

"Hey, Sonic!"

Sonic woke up, and squinted into the semi-darkness. "Wha--where am I?"

Tails was poking Sonic to wake him, but when Sonic had awakened, he stopped and sat on the gutter. "We're still in Station Square, and by the looks of the sky, it's about dawn."

Sonic sat up and stretched. "Ow! Why do I hurt all over?"

"Try lying on a slab of concrete for six hours and see how you feel," Tails said, voice effected by his shivering.

Sonic sat up, and held his head. Every juice in his head was spinning, and he was hurting. He also discovered that he was wet. "Did it rain?"

"No," Tails said, shivering violently. "I think we got hit by a blanket of dew sometime last night. Sonic, I'm cold. Let's get inside the hotel over there."

Sonic stood up, still light-headed, but fighting it. "What happened to us?"

"We got gassed by Eggman, and…we lost our Chaos Emerald." Tails looked angry.

Sonic was carrying the shoebox he was carrying the night before and Tails was carrying the sack as they entered the hotel and went into their room. Tails dashed for the nearest blanket and wrapped himself snuggly in it.

Tails sighed contentedly, "I could stay like this forever…"

Sonic put the box down on the table near the window and went looking for a towel. "At least the other Emerald's safe, still packed away in you-know-where, somewhere in you-know-what."

"But still the Emerald count now is two to one with four remaining and Eggman's ahead! We need to get busy!"

"Well, I'm taking a shower first."

Tails groped for a remote, finding it, and turned on the television. Most of it was news, weather and other junk, so he just watched uninterested, just for the sake of finding something to do.

"Hey, Sonic? What was with that drug-thing last night at the casino?" Tails cried out, not moving.

"It's kind of a long story, very boring, but I'll say it like this: Don't trust any shoe-salesman, for you will smell a rat."

Tails looked into the shoebox. "Nice shoes."

"Thanks and what's in your bag? I mean, you're not just carrying a paper bag for no reason, are ya?"

Tails smirked, and said, "Well, just some jet-anklets and a pretty-nice watch."

"Jet-anklets? What are they for?"

"Well…" Tails dug around in the sack, and pulled out the box of jet-anklets. He opened the box and found the instructions.

"I'm waiting…" Sonic called from inside the bathroom.

"It says that they can increase the speed of a runner…If I can get these to work, I can go really fast, not as fast as you, but I won't have to catch up with you so often."

"At least my 'fastest guy on the planet' title still is secure."

"Don't forget Mecha, Sonic!" Tails called in.

"Hey, I can whip that tin can any day, anyway."

Tails was playing with the buckles on the anklets. "What should we do today, Sonic?"

"I was hoping maybe to go up to the slopes and go 'boarding. Who knows? Maybe we'll find a Chaos Emerald there."

"That'll make a good day."

"Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to take a shower…a warm shower."

Sonic turned on the shower, and Tails began watching the news again. Nothing changed. Maybe he'll try on those jet-anklets. He unwrapped himself from the blanket and began slipping his feet through the iron hoops that made up the straps.

The jet anklets had a big iron buckle at the top part of the heel, which connected to two iron clasps. Those connected to a large heel covering that had six to seven vents on the back, hence the name, jet-anklets.

He clicked the buckles together, and walked around the room. The anklets created a general tightness at the ankle, but not too bad.

I wonder how you activate them… Tails thought, and looked at the box where they came from. The instruction packet was hanging out of the box, and Tails picked it up. He read that all one needed to do was to click his heels once to turn them on and once again to turn them off. Sounds simple enough.

Being the kind of kid who likes to experiment, he clicked his heels.

- - - - -

Sonic was wiping the excess water in his ears and smoothing out his spines with gel, when he heard Tails scream.

"Sonic! Help me!"

This was followed by a bunch of crashing. Sonic hit the closed door running, and looked outside. Tails was lying between the beds, feet up in the air.

"What happened?" Sonic shouted in shock, as he looked around the room.

The room looked like it was hit by a cyclone: The table and chairs were turned over, the bedcovers were strewn around the room, and the lamp and nightstand had tipped over, not broken though.

Sonic picked his way through the chaos and found Tails, dazed.

"Sorry, Sonic. I was trying out my jet-anklets and they…" Tails chuckled, embarrassed. "…got a little out of control."

"First, you wreck a plane. Now, you wreck a room. What's next, City Hall?"

Tails picked himself up and checked himself. "Nothing broken?"

"As in bones or furniture?"

"Stop picking on me."

Sonic picked up the shoebox, which was on the other side of the room from being catapulted by a table sent flying by a half-out-of-control fox.

"How did you manage to send my new shoes clear over here?"

"I don't know." Tails shrugged.

"I sure hope the maids don't mind. I didn't see them complaining about hedgehog spines in the sheets."

"I'd complain," Tails smirked.

Sonic began taking off his old pair, and reading the conveniences of the new shoes.

"It says here: Guaranteed to make you run faster. Extra conditioning inside to prevent heated feet and chafed skin, blah blah blah. Sounds like a cheesy commercial."

Tails was tapping his watch, and looked puzzled into the glass face.

"What's wrong, kid?" Sonic said, slipping one shoe on his foot.

"I think my clock's broken. It says its 3:07 PM, but we know that's wrong."

"Did you set it last night?"

"Set it? I have to set them? I thought they came at the right time!"

"I've never seen a watch in stores that had the right time."

"I feel stupid now." Tails reddened in the face.

"Why don't you go back to bed, and maybe your brain will come back?"

"I'm too embarrassed to sleep." Tails stood up. "Where do you think we should go after skiing?"

"Who said anything about skiing? I'm boarding. Skiing is for saps."

"Oh, I'm a sap, now?"

"Yes." Sonic looked smug.

Tails tackled him, and they wrestled on the floor, Robotnik, the Chaos Emeralds and Chaos driven from their heads.

- - - - -

Knuckles was standing at the foot of Mystic Ruins Train Station, leaning against a pole. He had little sleep the last night and was dirty and tired.

When he had returned back to Angel Island, he was greeted by the Chaotix, who were taking turns guarding the remains of the Master Emerald. Knuckles had re-attached the twenty-plus pieces back to the remains, and the Emerald was now half complete.

He also saw the dirty claw-things that Espio found, but they weren't dirty now; the Chaotix had polished them for better inspection. Knuckles picked up the objects. They were identical, but they seemed to be made for the hands, as a "thumb" covering was on one side of one, and a different side of the other.

They seemed to fit over Knuckles' hands, and he tried them on. The red cuff covered the cuff of his glove, and an iron grip ran under the hollow underside. The claws fit over Knuckles' knuclaws, but were a lot larger, and hollow.

"These are the shovel claws: an old artifact that helped the ancient Echidna's dig when ordinary tools ran short," Knuckles said, showing them to the Chaotix and looking them over in amazement; the shovel-claws were tools that were lost when the Floating Island Echidna's mysteriously disappeared. 

Knuckles stared at the top side, which was shiny silver color, and saw his reflection in it.

He thought these would be a good tool to find any buried shards underneath the soil.

The only thing Knuckles didn't like was the long travel back and forth to Mystic Ruins, so he brought this idea to the Chaotix early the next morning:

"Guys, we're going to dig out a tunnel in the rock on the mainland."

At first, it didn't settle well to some of the guys, but when Knuckles threatened with a quick hospitalization, all four volunteered with no pause.

It took quite a bit of the morning to excavate a sixty-foot long tunnel, but they got done before the weather got done, thanks to Mighty's and Knuckles' ability to pound cracks into stone walls, which was stronger thanks to the shovel claws.

They had started before dawn, giving Knuckles only a few hours of sleep, but he wanted to get done before the weather got hot. They got done sometime around 11:30 AM, a good six hours of work. Espio joked about slave labor, and Vector kept getting distracted by the sound of his rock music.

At one point, they came to a wall, made of porous rock. And for some reason, they hear wind outside, beating against the rock.

"We're almost there, crew!" Knuckles said, his voice echoing through the cavern. "Now, stand back."

All four members stood back, and Knuckles held his fist back, and drove it forward, smashing the rock to pieces. The debris from the stone collapsed into a heap in front of the cave entrance. It was a good thing, for the entrance was a good ten feet above the ground. The rock provided a rough, crooked staircase up to the mouth.

The Chaotix whooped and several surprised explorers looked back and forth at the rock pile and Knuckles and the Chaotix.

Knuckles ignored them and climbed down from the rock, telling them to go back and keep an eye out at the pyramid. The Chaotix mock saluted with a "yes sir," and left. Knuckles thought he overheard them wondering out loud if pizza could be delivered clear to Marble Gardens.

"I'm surrounded by idiots." Knuckles shrugged.

Knuckles descended into the main area, and began listening for a resonance of a Master Emerald shard.

Nothing. Knuckles began to scratch his chin.

Where would any of the shards fly out to from where it exploded? Knuckles thought.

Knuckles looked around for any possible passage. The only option he had was a cave. Wooden debris was piled around the mouth of the cave.

"Hmm, I wonder if that's my answer…" Knuckles walked into the cave, and found even more of a mess then near the entrance of the cave. He found the same emerald-green trophy that Tails had found near his workshop the afternoon of the day before. It was out of the pedestal now, but sitting beside it.

Knuckles noticed that there was a breeze in the cave.

Hmm, odd…

Knuckles looked at the trophy, then at the pedestal, then back at the trophy again. Just for the thought of it being proper, he took up the pedestal and jammed it into the slot on the pedestal.

Instantly the winds changed, and Knuckles, just as Sonic and Tails had been done to them before, was sucked up into the wind chute.

- - - - -

A few hours later…

Sonic and Tails were in the train, heading up towards the mountains that overlooked the Mystic Ruins. They were in fact reminiscent to the Ice Cap Mountains of the Floating Island.

Sonic and Tails had straightened up after wrestling in the hotel room, and spending the night out in the Square (against their will), and were on their way to, as Sonic had said it, "to fun out."

They reached the mountains, and the first thing that struck the two was the sudden change in temperature: It was definitely not the ninety-degree summer heat what Sonic and Tails had grown tolerant of, but it was the chilling breeze and air of the mountaintops.

"Woo! Whoa-hoh-hoh! That's cold!" Sonic instantly recoiled to the cold.

"I don't mind it," Tails said, who being a fox was covered in thicker fur then Sonic had. "I like the snow."

"You're a fox; you were born with a parka." Sonic shivered.

They disembarked the train, and came to the ski resort entrance. After some time, they rented two pairs of equipment: Snowboard equipment for Sonic, and ski equipment for Tails. The only real difference was that Tails got goggles, and Sonic didn't.

"You'll get snow-blind," warned Tails.

"Like I care," Sonic replied recklessly.

"Where do we go now?"

"First, we have to find a lift."

"And even before that, we have to find a slope."

"And before that even--"

"This is getting nowhere," Tails sighed.

"I know one thing: We're not going on a circle or square. I'm going on a Black Diamond."

Tails was a little worried. "Well…Sonic? I'm not sure I--we are completely ready to go on a Black Diamond."

"C'mon! You'll be stemming Christy before you know it! Let's go!"

Sonic went on ahead, but Tails lagged behind, hoping Sonic was right, but something else was bugging him, as if, something bad was going to happen.

"Hey, Tails! Are you frozen back there? C'mon!"

"I'm coming!"

Tails was hastily strapping on the skis and strapped the ski goggles on, and followed Sonic.

Sonic was waiting for Tails on a ledge, strapping the snowboard on his feet. He turned his head and saw Tails. "Welcome, Tails. We're a little behind schedule, but if you quicken the pace, our journey down will commence shortly," Sonic said with monotone, like a traveling agent.

"Very funny, Sonic."

Sonic stood on the ledge, and admired the view. "Look at the view! I can see the ocean from here!"

Tails looked at the wide view, and whistled. "Hey! Look! I see Sapphire City!"

Sonic took a deep breath, and let out a sound that may have been pleasant to a select few, but not to a great number of people.

"Yodelayheehoo!"

He was yodeling, and his yodels echoes around the mountains and the distant valleys.

Sonic breathed in deep, and turned to Tails. "How was that, my fellow mountaineer?"

Tails was seemingly cleaning out the wax out of his ear with his smallest finger. "Remind me not to recommend you for yodeling contests."

Sonic looked insulted, but smug at the same time. Then, he suddenly said, "See you later, Tails!" and he quickly disappeared in a cloud of snow. Tails was hot on his heals.

There was one consequence of Sonic's "loud" yodeling: The snow was more loose in the summer months then it was in any other seasons, and the yodeling sound waves that hit the slopes knocked loose just a little of the slope, but as the snow began to slide downwards, more snow gathered together. In a matter of minutes, a wave of white death was crashing down the slope at alarming speed. Its target appeared to be…Sonic and Tails!

Sonic was gliding along in a trail of powder when he heard a deep rumbling noise behind him. Chancing a look back, he found the source.

"Whoa! Tails! The whole mountain's coming down!" Sonic yelled to Tails who was gliding along side.

Tails, hearing Sonic's warning, didn't even dare to look back, but revved up his two tails to give him new speed, quickly disappearing down the slope.

Sonic, lacking the ability to speed away as Tails had done, bent down and held the board with one hand, gaining speed. The wave of white death was still tumbling down after Sonic.

Sonic noticed a cave up ahead, and quickly rerouted his path through the cave. The cave was in fact, an ice cavern, and, having almost zero friction, Sonic accelerated to speed no human would desire to in a cave of ice.

The avalanche tumbled in after him, but the cave opening was small enough that when the avalanche slapped into the cave mouth, it stopped dead, although a little bit of the white death spilled over the ground above the cave and a little bit through.

Sonic was slightly relieved when the avalanche plugged up the entrance to the cave, but that relief disappeared when he…

"Yikes!"

…ran headlong into an ice stalagmite.

If one was standing on the downhill cave mouth, he would've thought what came out rather strange, for a snowboard, one shoe and a body of a blue hedgehog slid out from the ice in the cave, and lay motionless in the snow.

"Man, I hate avalanches."

Sonic picked himself up, shook his daze off, and retrieved his shoe and snowboard, and began gliding down the slope again, still smarting about his run-in with a "cave decoration."

He began wondering where Tails had gotten to, when he heard several jet engines roar above his head. He looked up after looking for any rocks in his way to avoid another run-in; there above flying by were six or seven bomber jets, circling around the mountain.

"What's this? Some military display?" Sonic said, still gliding on the snow.

Then, the bombers turned to the slope where Sonic was descending quickly and dropped a number of bombs on the slope.

"Whoa, target practice!" Sonic shook a defiant fist. "All right, you want some? You got some! Bring it on, jerks!"

Sonic zigzagged down the slope, making it harder to hit. The bombers seemed to give it one try, but when it didn't work, they left, and Sonic did not see them return.

"That was no fun; they give up too easily."

Sonic continued down, and found some ramps on the way. Sonic did some aerial tricks as he launched off the ramps, doing 360s, 720s and flips.

Not long after, he came to the end of the slope, which was a circular flat with several trees dotting the flat. He saw a little ball of orange fur near one of the trees.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic shouted to the figure.

"Hi, Sonic! Look what I found here!" Tails ran up to Sonic, holding a green gem in his right hand and a pair of ski sticks in his other.

Sonic tried walking to Tails, but since his feet were still on the board, stumbled, but righted himself. Tails handed Sonic the green gem, which had a nice warm feel to it.

"Another one? That makes four! Geez, what are the odds of finding three Emeralds, not including the one we had, in just two days? What luck!"

Sonic gave the Emerald back to Tails, and took the snowboard off his feet. Tails lay the Emerald down in his lap and now began removing the skis. "Did you see those fighters fly around the mountain, Sonic?"

"Yeah, but they weren't fighters; they were bombers. They were after me for some reason."

"Who do you think they were?"

Sonic looked at the Chaos Emerald, then to the sky, at Tails, and then back at the Chaos Emerald again, looking stern.

Tails caught on. "Robotnik?"

Sonic nodded. "It would make sense if Eggman was looking for more to give Chaos, and I guess he guessed one was here, and sent some 'bots here, flying bombers. If they saw us…"

Tails jumped up and finished, "Then he'd know if a Chaos Emerald was here, since he got two from us alone."

Sonic looked around warily. "We'd better get out of here."

Sonic and Tails walk was much different then their ride up, not because of their mode of transportation, but of the air around it. Their ride up was a happy one, but their walk back to the station was wary and nervous, for the one thing that was in their mind was a certain white-colored hovercraft with a certain fat human riding it.

When they had gotten to the train station, they saw a crowd, armed with protests and picket signs. Most of the signs pretty much said the same thing: "We're on strike!" or "More benefits!" or "No work or better conditions."

"Oh, crap," Sonic sighed. "The train crew's on strike!"

"You mean the train can't take us down?"

"I guess not; looks like we have a long walk ahead of us."

"But I'm hungry!" whined Tails.

"So am I! I didn't say that we would leave without food," Sonic said. "There's got to be a food stand of some sort around the resort."

They began searching, and Tails complained all the while of hunger and cramped feet. Not long afterwards, they found a small snack shop. After a few minutes of snacking on some warm snacks, they began their walk down the long trail to the Mystic Ruins.

After a good hour walking, they came onto a fork in the road.

"Aw, man!" Tails cried out. "Which way now?"

Sonic looked down the two paths: One path led into the dense forests and jungles of the Mystic Ruins all right, but it looked like a tedious way, being overgrown in several areas. The other path led into a cave, but it must be a cold cave for ice lined the walls.

"Well, I vote for the cave. I'm not going to get lost in a jungle if I can help it, and the cave looks one way."

Tails looked down the cave, which sloped downwards and had a path that led down into it. "Ok, I guess. It does look a little slippery though."

"As long there are no rocks or what else in the way, we won't get hurt."

Sonic took the first step on the path, but there must've been some ice there for Sonic lost his feet, and slipped away down the cavern.

"Sonic! Wait for me!" Tails leapt in, and fell forward onto his front and slipped down like a furry penguin.

Sonic was sliding down quickly, steering from the walls where several chunks of ice sat, frozen to the surface. The whole slide down took a good ten minutes, when suddenly the ice suddenly changed to rock, which was quite different from the slick ice. It skinned some of Sonic's arms, but not his back thanks to his spines. Tails quickly followed and suffered no more harm then Sonic.

"What a blast!" Sonic yelled in the cave, his voice echoing.

Tails was rubbing rock dust from his front. "Where's my Chaos Emerald?"

As if on cue, the Chaos Emerald tumbled down the icy path and hit Tails' ankle. Sonic picked it up. "Here it is."

Sonic and Tails looked at the cave around them. One cavern went slightly downwards ahead of them. The other cavern was a little more lit and lead level behind them.

"Well, let's go forward. That was the way that the jungle path went back on top of the path."

Tails, for some reason, was feeling the wall. "Sonic? These walls are fresh; look at all the dust."

"So?"

"This cavern wasn't here before..."

"Well, that gives us more reason to check it out. Who knows? Maybe it's a shortcut."

Sonic and Tails walked through the cave, which as they walked down it was not made of rock, but of a hard soil which had lots of boulders and rock slabs in it.

"You know the last time where we saw soil like this?" Tails said, touching the wall.

"Not really, but I had some strange feeling I've seen it before."

"The Floating Island! Remember Lava Reef, and the caverns around the Hidden Palace?"

"Yeah...?" Sonic made the connection. "Oh, this soil is just like the Floating Island! Maybe the Floating Island was part of the mainland, until some history bunk came along, forcing the Echidnas back then to make the island float with the Master Emerald and the Supers."

Tails looked at the Chaos Emerald in his hand. "Do you think it had something to do with these?" Tails held up the gem to Sonic.

Sonic touched the top smooth facet, rubbing it. "Who knows? I hate history anyway…"

They felt a breeze up ahead, and saw the end of the cave.

"Look! That's the Mystic Ruins! We're back!" Tails yelled in glee.

"Geesh, kid. Don't yell so loudly!" Sonic rubbed the inside of his ears.

They descended down the rock pile in front of the cave mouth and into the main area. Tails ran to get the other Chaos Emerald from the cave.

"I'm getting the other Emerald, so we can keep them together, in one sight."

"All right, have it your way."

Tails was not gone long when he came back with the Purple Chaos Emerald, found in Windy Valley, back to Sonic, holding the green one in his hand.

"Hey, I haven't noticed that pond down there before…" Tails pointed down to a place where the land dropped off into a pond, fed by a waterfall that poured from the rock. Tails found several large stone steps that led down to the pond, and hopped down them, followed by Sonic.

Sonic took his time going down, but Tails rushed down and looked into the rippling water.

"I've never seen water so clear…" Tails stared at his reflection and to the rocky floor on the bottom. "Do you think there's any fish?"

Sonic shrugged. "Why would we care? We don't have a fishing pole."

Tails sighed. "I guess so…hey, that's a strange looking rock."

Sonic looked down into the water. "Where?"

"There!" Tails pointed to an object beneath the surface of the pond, just a few feet away. Sitting on the bottom of the pond floor was a large, pearl-white rock.

Sonic looked at where Tails was pointing. "Wow, that is a strange looking rock."

Tails spun his tails and floated over the water. Taking off his glove, he reached down into the water, careful not to get his shoes submerged into the water so as not to short the anklets out.

"I got it!"

Tails flew back and landed, using the outside of his glove the dry off the rock.

"Do you think it's some strange stone, like a quartz?"

"I dunno." Sonic shrugged. "It looks nice though. Maybe it is worth something."

Tails sighed. "If only Knuckles was here; he oughta know if this would be valuable. He finds a whole bunch of rocks and metals in there."

Sonic began to climb up the stone steps, but Tails was delicately rubbing the stone. It was so smooth, and so shiny. So white, sparkly and pretty.

"Hey, Tails! Are you going to come up or are you going to need a tent down there?"

"I'm on my way, Sonic!"

Tails carried the Purple Emerald and the white rock in both hands and jogged up the steps. Sonic was waiting up at the top.

"Glad you decided to come back up here today."

Tails ignored him and walked past Sonic, intending to take his Emerald back to the workshop to lock it up, and keep the rock as a curiosity. Sonic turned to follow him.

Just a few yards ahead, barring their way, was a red Echidna, wearing spiked gloves and green socks, covered by red-and-gold sneakers with thick heals. A white, point-upward crescent sat on the Echidna's chest.

Knuckles.

Chapter 9: The Battle in the Pond  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gamma searched the area he was standing in. His head swivels back and forth, scanning.

He was standing in a green-colored room, which was big enough to have a kids' soccer game in. It was not prism shaped as rooms tend to be, but it had a flat bottom, but a round roof, support beams crisscrossing across the ceiling. There were a large number of steps ahead. There were three doors behind him, closed and motionless. Two other doors were on the sides along the top of the walkway that ran around the circumference of the room. Three paths ran over the main floor. One main door stood on top of the flight of stairs. This room was the main hall, the Great Hall if you will.

Gamma had been doing various runs throughout the Egg Carrier, exploring the accessible parts of the Egg Carrier.

When Metal Sonic had brought both Gamma and Beta to the Egg Carrier the previous day, Metal Sonic led them to the construction chamber, for as Robotnik had stolen the Red Emerald from Sonic and Tails and summoned Chaos, he typed instructions and forwarded them to Metal Sonic via the internal network of Dr. Robotnik's robots, each with a distinct channel, each distinct by color. The Mecha-Bot channel was in fact the blue one.

The instructions were to do what he liked to Beta, but not to hurt Gamma. He was to receive a weapons upgrade, for Robotnik found Gamma's right-hand gun to be far too weak to survive in any regular battle.

Mecha secretly cursed the instructions, but if he could have, he would've smiled with such a hunger at the thought of what to do with Beta.

Gamma had sensed the malice and cruelty rise up under Metal Sonic's blue metal flesh, but said nothing.

When they had gotten to the Egg Carrier Construction Bays, Metal Sonic had passed the instructions to both Beta and Gamma. Beta was lead to a distant construction pod, and Gamma's arm was put to work.

The gun was removed off his right hand, and several minutes later, a three-barrel gun with a holder. It was in fact, a gun with three different kinds of firearm: regular gun, laser pistol and ion blaster.

It worked much more easily then his last firearm, but he couldn't help hearing the whir of the mechanical arms tearing Beta apart, and he looked over towards the pod. He saw Metal Sonic working with relish at the controls.

Gamma shuddered physically back in the main hall as his memory banks. There, he stood, feeling the motion of the Egg Carrier as it cruised across the Möbian sky.

Suddenly, his network reception rang with a voice from Master:

"I want all E-series robots to come to the main hall for your first missions! Wait for me there. Go, now!"

Gamma felt strangely elated, but he wasn't very sure why. Maybe it was the same feeling that all robots felt when their first missions came at their due time.

He heard several clanging footfalls behind him which came closer. Three robots, reminiscent to himself but different colors, lined up beside himself in the order of the numbers, least to greatest, and stood still.

Delta, Zeta and Epsilon.

A few moments later, a fanfare burst out, melodic and smooth. Metal Sonic stood on the walkway some height above the floor. Not much longer after, Robotnik stepped onto a large platform midway up the stairs. Several spotlights switched on, highlighting the doctor.

Metal Sonic rolled his eye equivalents as Robotnik began his speech.

Robotnik tapped on an object in front of him, which Gamma assumed was a sound projection unit. "Hello, Testing…1…2…3…" Robotnik cleared his throat. "You, the members of the elite crew of the Egg Carrier are here today…" Robotnik pointed to the E-series. "…to hear a special announcement!"

Robotnik pressed a few buttons on a panel beside the stand, still speaking, "Behold! A new discovery sighted by one of my Cam-bots flying over the Mystic Ruins several hours before: A tailed-frog!"

A computer-generated hologram of a large, green frog appeared and rotated at a constant speed. Its abnormal presence of a tail made the tail the most noticeable feature. Gamma scanned the image slowly but carefully to catch every feature.

"This frog is absolutely vital to my current plan to conquer the world. You mission is thus: Find that frog quickly and bring it to me! Stand to attention!"

All of the robots in the rooms stood straight, and held their guns poised, all except Metal Sonic, for he, being disgusted at this whole show, left the room.

"All of you GO!" Robotnik barked. "We have no time to dawdle; get that frog!"

All four turned and marched to a teleporter pod, and one-by-one, beamed away to separate locations to find the frog faster.

Robotnik walked to his hovercraft and boarded it, starting the engines. He left through a metal tube in the ceiling that led to the deck closest to the bridge. As he flew above the Egg Carrier's deck, his scanners beeped suddenly. Robotnik's eyebrows lifted in interest as he checked the readouts.

"Ah, two more lovely Emeralds." Robotnik laughed evilly. "Chaos should be close to those, no doubt."

Robotnik turned to starboard and flew away, going slightly downwards to the earth below.

- - - - -

Knuckles was fuming at his embarrassing and seemingly-useless adventure in the Windy Valley, which left him bruised, wet, scratched and very angry. He was walking away from what he called that "darn cave" (although darn was not the word he used) and stalked about on the Mystic Ruins main area, when he saw Sonic and Tails come up from the pond…and Sonic holding something shining and green in his hand.

The words said by Robotnik during the night before returned with a violent nature, bringing the redness in the corner of Knuckles' eyes.

"It's Sonic…and Robotnik was right! He is after the shards of the Master Emerald after all! He has no right to have that without my knowledge…" Knuckles stalked up to Sonic, when Tails began walking past Sonic, but froze when he saw Knuckles.

Sonic turned too. "Hey, Knuckles! How ya been since last night?"

Knuckles didn't answer verbally, but threw a fist forward with enough force to nearly break the hedgehog's jaw if the aim was precise, but Sonic leapt up and to his right, narrowly avoiding the spiked fist.

Sonic quickly took a defensive stance, but secretly shocked at the behavior of his friend. "Something bugging you?"

Knuckles turned and glared at Sonic with ferocity. "You bet there is, it's about four feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel!" Knuckles pointed with his fist at Sonic, reinforced by the knuclaws, as Sonic noticed. "You have something I want. Give me that thing in your hand, RIGHT NOW!"

Sonic was still fuming at the insult Knuckles hurled at him, but that quickly changed to a genuine shock, and Tails stared a safe distance away, clutching the purple gem tightly.

"What?" Sonic shouted in disbelief, but his mood changed. "That ain't gonna happen buddy! Tails and I worked hard on this and what makes you think I'll just hand it over?"

"If you knew what was best for you…" Knuckles shook a warning fist.

"Let's just see you take it."

Knuckles charged swinging a fist forward, but Sonic was too quick, and he quickly dashed away, following up with a quick spin-dash to Knuckles' unprotected back.

Knuckles fell forward as the forceful attack of Sonic struck home. Knuckles had originally thought as not to harm Sonic, but when Sonic had hit him blindsided, the rage in Knuckles awakened and the vendetta began.

Knuckles swung wildly at Sonic, and when Sonic was about to spin-dash one time, Knuckles drove his fist into the ball of spines.

Both cried out as if in pain, and Sonic leapt back, rubbing the part that was hit, and discovered that the steel knuclaws had penetrated through the defense and hit his side, leaving a small cut, a little under the ribcage. It wasn't bleeding, but it smarted. Knuckles on the other hand was rubbing his arm, the same arm he punched Sonic with. The force from the spin-dash with the combination of the force of Knuckles' single punch colliding caused a jolt of shocking pain that raced up his arm and down his back.

But this slight break did not last long as Sonic and Knuckles were at it again. Sonic really didn't want to fight Knuckles, but he had no choice, for it seemed that Knuckles was willing to.

Knuckles was still angry about the general soreness from his back when Sonic hit him there, but deep down, he didn't want to hurt him; he just wanted to get that shard back that Sonic had.

Sonic was beginning to tire quickly, but he was preparing to give Knuckles one more hit, just enough to knock him away so he could go get the Emerald away.

Knuckles knew he wouldn't last another five minutes against Sonic's attacks, but that shard! Knuckles shook his head, and set himself up to deliver a punch that would surely knock the shard out.

Sonic backed up, and made a mad dash at Knuckles.

Knuckles ran forward, muscles tight and arm back to deliver the stronger blow when they met.

Tails closed his eyes, the Emerald forgotten in one hand.

They were only twenty feet apart now.

Fifteen feet.

Ten.

Five.

They collided; Sonic in a ball of spines and Knuckles with fists forward.

The recoil of the sudden slamming of the forces knocked them both sprawling backwards, knocking Sonic's Emerald out of his hand. Knuckles had run into Tails backwards, and Tails' Emerald left his hand and flew forward, and bounced to a stop, just a few feet away from the Green Emerald.

"Oh, no! The Chaos Emerald!" Tails sat up, but couldn't get up, for Knuckles was lying dazed on his legs.

Sonic dashed for the two Emeralds, but was knocked back when the ground in front of Sonic blew up in his face. That knocked him down. Tails looked up and cried in despair, for a white hovercraft advanced quickly and picked up the Emeralds with a transporter beam, for the claw couldn't pick up two at once.

Sonic sat up, rubbing his head. "Oh, it's Eggman!" Sonic stood up, looking for the Emeralds, and found that they were gone. "Oh, no!"

"That's right, fools!" laughed Robotnik from above. "You guys made it all too easy!"

Knuckles had gotten up already, and found what he was fighting Sonic for…in Robotnik's hand.

"That's…a Chaos Emerald!" Knuckles shouted in disbelief.

"That's right, Knuckles. I'm surprised that you could be so gullible. Normally, someone wouldn't trust someone after they found out that they were tricked before."

Sonic stood staring at Robotnik, and then, slowly looked at Knuckles, anger spelled clearly in his eyes. "You let him trick you again?"

Knuckles was kicking himself mentally for mistaking a Chaos Emerald for a Emerald shard again, and was clearly frustrated. "Me? What about you?"

"Smooth move, Knucklehead."

Tails was still sitting where he was, angry at himself for not hanging on the Emerald tighter.

Robotnik laughed in triumph. "I have four Emeralds now! That leaves three, and at the rate you guys are going, I'll have them by the end of tomorrow night!" Robotnik held the Emeralds tightly and high above the Möbians' heads. "Chaos, come forth!"

Slowly, a large flat bubble of water formed beside the hovercraft, and Sonic and Tails saw Chaos form into the water monster with two large arms that Knuckles had defeated very early that morning.

Sonic put his face into his hand, disgusted at this showing off Eggman was cruel enough to rub in.

"These are for you, my friend…" Robotnik tossed the two Emeralds into the body of Chaos, and then they floated into the middle of the torso. A bright flash (combination of green and purple)erupted from Chaos' middle, and then dissipated, and to Sonic's, Tails' and Knuckles' sick horror, Chaos had become a creature that seemed to dwell in the sea.

He looked like a large fish, not like a marlin or a tuna, but a great, big shark! The emeralds were embedded in the skeleton that now reinforced the front fins and the saw-like tail. The Emeralds were now embedded in the front fins and the "hips" of Chaos 4.

"Ah!" Tails shouted. "He changed again!"

Sonic slapped a fist into his palm in frustration. "Man, no one cuts us any slack!"

"That's right, fools! You idiots practically gave them to me!" Robotnik floated away in the craft a distance and watched if any fight were to ensue.

Chaos flipped backwards and into the pond behind him, disappearing under the surface.

Sonic shouted. "C'mon, Tails! Let's show that loser who he's really up against!" Sonic ran down the steps, followed by Tails.

Knuckles stared after them, but Robotnik said, "What's the matter, Knucklehead? Too afraid to fight along your friends?"

Knuckles glared up at Robotnik, grabbed a large piece of debris near the mouth of Windy Valley Cave and hurled it up towards Robotnik.

All Robotnik saw was a large broken piece of timber fly toward him, and smack against the siding of the hovercraft. The craft shuddered, and Robotnik looked a little jolted. He saw that there was a large dent on the side where the timber hit.

Knuckles listened coolly and satisfyingly as Robotnik hurled curses at him. "Serves you right…Eggman!"

Knuckles ran to the ledge that led into the pond and jumped off.

- - - - -

Chaos 4 had melted into the water, but his eyes examined the two coming down the stone steps. One was that blasted hedgehog that had attacked him before, and one was a two-tailed fox. The only time he saw a two-tailed fox was when he got the first Emerald, but the two-tailed fox didn't move to attack. Chaos thought he was neutral and just wanted to watch, leaving that hedgehog to vent his fury on.

Sonic had leapt onto a large lily pad, and was scanning the surface for any hint of Chaos. The water was very still.

"Where is he?"

Tails suddenly shouted near the other side of the water. "Sonic, JUMP!"

Sonic jumped, but not knowing why, until he saw a red wave of energy zip by from underneath, and it felt hot.

Sonic leapt from lily pad to lily pad, trying to see Chaos, but with no luck. Suddenly, the pad that he was standing on was sucked under by something, bringing Sonic with it. Then, a watery flipper slapped him hard, sending Sonic flying over the water and onto the shore. Chaos lifted his head above the water to see where Sonic flew to, but just at that moment, he was his most vulnerable, for a spiked fist slammed into the back of his head and smacked the brain.

Chaos exploded and melted into the pond, and the attacker ran to Sonic.

"Sonic, are you okay?"

Sonic sat up, rubbing his head. "Knuckles?"

"C'mon! You got to get up; I see Chaos coming this way!" Knuckles dragged Sonic to his feet, looking at a wake coming there direction.

Sonic saw it too, and dashed to his left, just in time to see the same flipper stretch out and trying to slap at him again. Knuckles leapt up and glided away, staring at the water under him.

Tails felt helpless on the shore and was trying to help, but Chaos was too quick and too far away. Tails then had an idea, for when Chaos was close to the s

urface, the glow from the brain gave away where he was. Maybe he could attack him from above, but how, butt-stomp him?

Tails looked in his hands and found the white rock he was holding. Hey, maybe that will work…Tails thought.

He spun his tails and leapt over the water, looking for the hot pink glow of the brain. He found it not long, and it seemed to be after Knuckles on the lily pads. He drifted over the glow, took his rock and spiked it down like a football.

Sonic was trying to figure out what Tails was up to when he saw him throw the stone down into the water, and the giant splash erupted from the water, as if something blew up under the water.

"I did it! I hit Chaos!" Tails cheered.

"Nice job, kid! But don't look now, but it seems he's after you now."

"Huh? Whoa!" Tails clicked his heels and raced away, just as a giant, razor-sharp tail whipped out from the surface and swiped at him.

Chaos was too determined to hit Tails to realize that he was exposed to Sonic's attacks from the side.

Sonic did not miss the chance, for he curled into a ball of spines and dashed into the monster's brain.

Chaos exploded, angry at himself for letting Sonic hit him so easily and now he was looking out for three attackers. He must not let himself get caught like that again.

Each made an attempt to attack Chaos, but being very angry, he was on to them, and none could land a blow.

"He's gotten too smart now, Sonic!" Knuckles said, looking at the glow a distance away.

Sonic's mind began to race; how were they going to get to Chaos now? The element of surprise only can work so many times on such a powerful creature, but now that they caught Chaos three times, it wasn't likely that they had any more chances for striking him by surprise again…or did they?

Sonic shouted to Tails, "Hey, Tails! Lure him my direction in the reeds!"

"What?" Tails shouted from high above.

"To the reeds!" Sonic pointed to a large bunch of water plants on one end of the pond.

Tails gave a thumbs-up, but Knuckles didn't seem to catch on.

"What's going on?" Knuckles shouted.

Sonic didn't stop to explain. Speed and just plain luck were key to making this trap work. Sonic ducked behind the reeds and waited for Tails to hover by, hopefully followed by Chaos.

He didn't have to wait long, for Chaos was eager to thwack anyone who got too close. When Tails flew by, he lunged forward and snapped at his feet. Tails quickly, but not too quickly so as not to lose Chaos, lured him towards the reeds where Sonic had hid.

Sonic curled into a stationary spin-dash, a trick he normally used to take out rows of robots back in Robotropolis just like they were bowling pins.

What he didn't know was that the shoes had something special for storing up energy. The potential energy would build up with the aid of a particular movement in the feet and store it until it let go with such strength that can greatly increase one's speed.

Sonic was flipping over still, unaware that the heels of his shoes began to glow a bright yellow.

Tails hovered near the reeds and looked as if trapped, followed soon by Chaos, who was rising up to deliver a powerful blow on Tails.

"NOW, SONIC! NOW!" Tails screamed at the top of his lungs.

Sonic launched forward, and the potential energy stored in the shoes was unleashed, sending Sonic at such a speed that to Tails, it looked like a bright blur. The force not only hit the brain, but actually flew through Chaos body, and didn't stop until it hit the rock wall with a crack.

Chaos had obviously exploded and melted away. Tails and Knuckles were staring agape at the wall Sonic had hit. There lay three small cracks where Sonic had hit. Then they looked at Sonic, who was shaking the water off his fur.

Sonic noticed their shocked looks. "What?"

Knuckles and Tails pointed to the wall. Sonic looked at the wall and noticed the cracks. "Wow, I never thought I could hit that hard…"

Sonic ran back up the stairs and found Dr. Robotnik hovering above the ground.

"Well, Eggman…" Sonic said smugly. "It appears that Chaos was no more of a problem then before. Maybe you should--"

Sonic's words were interrupted by a roar of rocket engines up above and that the fact that the sun was blocked by something, for they all were standing in a shadow of something; he, Tails and Knuckles looked up.

Above the Mystic Ruins, flying over the rocky cliffs was a very large ship. It had a red front and red side panels, bearing the insignia of Dr. Robotnik: his face, perfectly round. The whole craft appeared to be over ten city blocks long and only one wide. Blue flames fired out of the rear rocket engines. It resembled nothing that Sonic, Tails or Knuckles had ever seen, but by the sheer size of it, it must've taken several years to make.

"Behold my latest and most magnificent creation: The Egg Carrier!" Robotnik ran his hand along the length if the monstrous craft. "It has taken me four years to construct, but even with its impressive power, it pales to the potential power of Chaos!" Robotnik turned and looked at the three below. "Adieu! Until we meet again, my friends!" Robotnik laughed again and was illuminated by a green beam. Suddenly, surely, Robotnik and the craft disappeared in the beam. The beam then maneuvered to the pond, and the three saw a blob of water raise up into the bean, four energy balls floating over it.

The green beam switched off and the Egg Carrier lifted up and flew away over the sea and towards Sapphire City. Sonic and Tails stared after it, but Knuckles shook his head and looked away.

"C'mon, Sonic!" Tails said. "We have a plane that has guns nearby! Let's go after him!"

Sonic turned to Tails. "Good idea! Let's go!"

"You guys go ahead…"

Sonic and Tails turned to Knuckles who spoke again, "I have some unfinished business to take care of, concerning the Master Emerald…and…sorry for making you guys lose the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic replied, "It's all right, Knux. We had already some hard luck already. We'll take care of Eggman for you."

Sonic wheeled about and ran after Tails, who had darted to the plane before Sonic did. Knuckles stared after them and walked toward the tunnel he had dug out that morning.

- - - - -

Tails ran up to the plane that was already at the front of the workshop, but there was no runway, unless one would call the flat overhang that extended over the sea a runway.

Sonic said, "Uh, Tails? We have no runway."

"Yeah we do; just wait out here for a sec…" Tails opened the door to the hanger and entered, closing the door behind him.

There, Sonic just stood there, eyeing the glow of the thrusters of the Egg Carrier in the distance and the smoke trail left by it. He began idly tapping his foot impatiently as the Egg Carrier began to slowly get farther and farther from view.

"Tick tock tick tock, Tails. We haven't got all day…" Sonic said to himself, under his breath.

Suddenly he felt the ground shake from underneath, but not like an earthquake; it felt like something underground was moving.

The heck? Sonic thought, when suddenly the ground split open before him, but not as a cracked line as one might think, but as a neat, straight line that ran perfectly straight down the overhang. The palm trees that were rooted on the sides tipped over away from the widening slit in the ground, but Sonic noticed that the trees were sitting on some machine swivel that made them lean away when the ground opened. When the ground opened to a good ten feet wide, and very long piece of pavement lifted from underneath and rose a bit at the end.

A runway!

The hanger doors opened and Tails walked out casually and started the engines on the plane. The plane looked just like the Tornado when it was red, except no emblems of two fox tails.

"Sonic, hop in!" Tails shouted over the engine from his pilot's seat.

Sonic hopped on to the plane and stood on the tail, just behind Tails.

"Let's go!" Tails shouted and pushed the control stick forward. The plane lurched and sped forward, increasing speed as it went. When it reached the end of the runway, it left the ground and both were off into the wide blue and after the Egg Carrier.

- - - - -

Knuckles had reached the end of the tunnel, slightly depressed but still a bit angry at himself. He had not found any more shards since the previous night, and the day was growing late. Knuckles wiped sweat from his forehead. He knew that he must find some more soon, or not find any today.

He came to the rope bridge that connected the Floating Island to the mainland temporarily and looked at the glow that radiated from the Master Emerald on the other side. I hope I can make that precious Emerald whole again, Knuckles thought.

He looked around for any possibilities and found a small archway that led to a path that curved out of view.

"Hmm, I hadn't noticed that before."

Knuckles began walking down the path, completely unaware where it would lead, but he hoped it led to more shards.

It was a hard path, strewn with rocks, overgrowth and what not; it was clear that this path had not been treaded upon for ages. After a good half-hour's walk, he came to the other end of the path. It was the mouth of a river, the same river that flowed from Windy Valley. There was a dam erect at the mouth, a large dam; probably because flash floods were common and they needed an especially strong dam.

"Why would they put a dam here?" Knuckles thought aloud. He then saw a large black cable that ran out from a building at the side of the dam. The cable ran into the ocean. Knuckles reasoned that this was a factory for hydroelectricity, and a place that doesn't dry would be the best place to put it.

Knuckles hiked down to near the dam, and looked around. Then, he heard something ring in his head: a Master Emerald shard resonance! Knuckles grew excited. He ran on the top of the dam, which was wide enough to have two-way traffic on, and listened for any change. There was indeed a shard here, very close.

It didn't take him long, for the dam was made of a limestone-concrete mixture, ensuring solidity, and since the shard was green, it would clearly stick out from the white if it was here. He found it lying flat on the surface, and scooped it up, putting it into his backpack.

At last! Progress at last! He then noticed that another shard was close at hand. In fact, it sounded like there were a number of them near in one spot. He looked over the dam surface, and saw pieces of glass-like material floating on the surface, but those weren't glass; they were shards! The power contained in them enabled them to float, for ordinarily, glass would sink. The shards were twenty feet down from his location. This will require a climb.

Knuckles set his knuclaws into the wall, and began climbing slowly down. Ten feet now…now seven…five…

He stopped when the water began lapping at the bottom of his shoes. Oh, it better be close enough.

He reached down and discovered that it was harder to grab things that were floating since they tended to float away from the place you grab, but he managed to grab the lot of them and stuff him into his backpack.

He felt like he was there forever; his arms and legs began to ache as his muscles were forced to endure the position that they were placed in for the sake of getting the Master Emerald whole.

He heard a voice from above. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Knuckles looked up and saw a man, wearing a white hat, signifying he worked at the hydroelectric plant. The man was red-headed and wore a rusty-colored beard.

Knuckles paused to think of an excuse for hanging from the wall of a dam. "I'm cleaning up some of the junk that had floated downstream from the valley!" Knuckles called up.

"We have cleaning nets for that!" shouted the man from above, sounding stern. "Now get back up here, or we'll have to force you off of there!"

"All right, all right! But I'll need the net, for I can't get some of these chunks of glass that are floating on the surface!" Knuckles began to climb up and back onto the walkway.

When he had reached the top, the man said, "The nets are over there, but make it snappy; I'm due to check the filters in a good five minutes."

Knuckles brushed past and picked up a net. It was too short, but he found a way to extend it, for there was a screw-like handle that when turned to loosen, it enabled to set the length of the pole. Knuckles extended it out all the way, and dragged it back to the place he found the shards. He lowered the pole into the water, hiding a grimace of pain from stiff muscles from being in one uncomfortable position far too long.

He fished out the remaining shards and stuffed them into his backpack. "There, I'm done." Knuckles handed the net back to the maintenance man. He didn't even say "thank you," but just began looking over the opposite wall, looking for hints of needed repair.

What a jerk, thought Knuckles and walked the rest of the way to the opposite end of the dam. He looked around the surrounding scenery. A path stretched before him, but it seemed to lead into a wasteland of ash and dust. A large volcano sat to the right, and it was slowly steaming.

Oh, boy… Knuckles thought, when the mental-picture of shards somewhere in that wilderness flashed through his mind.

He slowly advanced up the path, and soon he came upon a sigh reading the following:

"Warning! Fire Lake and Red Mountain Wildernesses Ahead! Enter At Your Own Risk!"

"Well, that's pretty straight forward, and its ten to one that one shard is in there." Knuckles sighed, and began walking farther up the path, hoping that this wouldn't be the last time he'll take this path.

- - - - -

Metal Sonic was standing in the cockpit in the Egg Carrier, arms behind his back and looking out the view windows into the skies. There weren't many clouds where they were, since they were pretty high up by now, but it really didn't seem to make Metal Sonic care. He was thinking about himself.

"Hmm, who am I, really?" Metal Sonic looked at his steel claws, sharper then eagle's talons. "Am I to be a slave, killing things at my Master's word; just a copy of Sss…that hedgehog?" Metal Sonic groaned, for as a robot, it sounded a lot more like a low grinding sound. "Why me? Why did I have to be chosen to be just a pawn and copy? I deserve better then this."

Metal Sonic's red eyes scanned the horizon. "One day, Mast…Dr. Robotnik will regret making me a slave. I will show him what he really has made. But now's not the time, for I am still too weak to take on such a task. When I get stronger, then I will free myself from this slavery, and even be rid of that hedgehog, and I'll be the real one!"

Metal Sonic looked at his metal arms, and tapped one idly with the "knuckle" of one finger. The metallic clang reminded him of what he was: just a robot.

"That's one thing that will go: metal. There must be a way to get the flexibility of flesh, but still retain the same strength as this accursed metal of mine."

His thought were interrupted when suddenly, a red light on the control panel suddenly blazed to life. Alarms rang, and a computer voice said, "Warning! Warning! Priority hedgehog sighted approximately 1.23 kilometers due north-north east!"

Metal Sonic looked at a computer screen that showed a visual scanner that picked up the "priority hedgehog;" it showed a picture of Sonic, riding on the tail of a rather old-looking plane, piloted by Tails.

"The fool!" Metal Sonic said. "That would lead to ultimate destruction; I'll show him that."

As he prepared the Egg Carrier to release the shark planes, kamikaze planes with shark designs on them, he made contact with Dr. Robotnik.

"Master? That hedgehog has been sighted trying to attack the Egg Carrier."

There was a pause, then a reply. "What is he using to even get up to this battleship?"

"It appears to be just an ordinary biplane."

Robotnik laughed evilly. "Is that all? Does he think that a miserable rust-bucket can match the almighty power of the Egg Carrier? Well then, we'll have to teach him a lesson. Release the shark planes. I have to see if E-Zero has caught anymore specimens for my robots. Do to that blasted hedgehog and his sidekick what you must."

"Yes, master."

When the transmission was safely ended, Metal Sonic fumed at calling Robotnik "master," but all that aside, they had some prey to catch.

Chapter 10: Chase in the Skies  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was rather a strange sight: a small red biplane chasing a large aerial battleship so big that one might not even notice the smaller plane. Sonic and Tails saw the Carrier in the distance and were following it from behind. The bulk of the Carrier began to slowly grow as Tails was using full throttle to catch up with it.

"What are we going to do if we catch it, make faces at it?" Sonic shouted.

"We'll find that out when we get there…" Tails had noticed several small spots moving from the Egg Carrier and move different directions. It seemed that a few broke off and were heading straight towards them.

"Looks like we have company!" Tails shouted to Sonic.

Sonic looked around. "Where?"

Tails suddenly yanked the steering stock to the side, causing the plane to suddenly tip to the side so as to turn. Just then, a plane, blazed in shark decals, flew racing by.

"Yikes!" Sonic yelped. "What was that?"

"Just what I feared: kamikaze warplanes," Tails shouted, his eyes fixed on an amateurish radar on the instrument pad. "Sonic! I found a weapon! It's not very strong, but it might work!"

"What is it?" Sonic said, looking for said weapon.

"It's right behind my seat!" Tails motioned behind him. "It's on a pole that supposed to slide into a hole on the body of the plane!" Tails swerved again as another plane streaked by.

Sonic reached into the cubby hole, still trying to keep his balance on the tail of the plane, and pulled out a large gun mounted on a pole. A few belts of ammunition were draped around it.

"A machine gun?" Sonic said.

"Anti-aircraft!" Tails added.

Sonic shrugged and slid the pole into a one-inch hole he found near his foot. It fit perfectly. Sonic slid one belt into a slot on the side of the gun.

"Now we're ready for some action! Bring it on, Egghead!"

Sonic aimed for a plane that was heading their general direction, and pulled the trigger.

His aim proved not to be the best, but after some adjusting for his aim, he hit the side of the plane, which exploded as the explosives packed into the planes detonated.

Sonic whooped, and he "high-fived" Tails.

"Don't look now, Sonic, but here comes the cavalry!" Tails warned.

Four planes took turns at diving toward the biplane, but Sonic, improving on his aim, hit the planes mercilessly, resulting in several explosions both left and right of the two.

By now, they had reached the Egg Carrier, and a new danger presented itself.

"Tails! Watch out! Missile launchers at 11 o'clock!"

Tails darted the plane back and forth like a dragonfly over water as deadly missiles streamed toward them at high speeds. Sonic unloaded his gun at the launchers themselves, and the bullets smacked into the metal frame, and the launchers that were hit ceased fire.

"Whew, that was close," Tails breathed.

"You ain't just whistling Dixie, kid, but we're not out of it yet. Here come some more!"

Sonic began spraying bullets in what seemed to be in random directions, but they hit various kamikazes, missile launchers and left some dents in the armor panels of the Egg Carrier itself, but no damage to that ship otherwise.

Tails mind began to work: how were they going to get on the Egg Carrier anyway? Tails lifted the plane to get a better view of the top of the deck. There were several runways for planes on the front of the Egg Carrier. That gave Tails an idea. First, dive under the underbelly of the ship and then suddenly flip around on the front and land on the Egg Carrier! Eggman shouldn't suspect a thing like that especially with a biplane such as the one they're riding on.

Tails put the plane into a dive until they were at the rear of the Egg Carrier and under it. This should work like magic.

- - - - -

Robotnik strode into the cockpit where Metal Sonic was observing the progress that Sonic and Tails had gained through their skillful maneuvering.

"Where are they now, Metal Sonic?"

Metal Sonic hid the cringe he normally did. "They have flown from underneath the ship and have flown a distance to the front. They appear to be trying to land on the main strips."

Robotnik laughed. "The fools! Did they really think that they could get in so easily? We'll see to that…"

- - - - -

Tails piloted the plane to a good 200 yards in front, and was preparing to turn around when a deep, booming voice rumbled through the atmosphere around them, but because of the engine, distance and the wind, they couldn't decipher what was being said.

If they looked behind, they would've noticed that the front part opened and revealed a large laser lens inside.

"Egg Cannon prepare to fire…"

"Whoa! What was that?" Sonic said, looking around.

"Ready…!"

"I dunno, I can't see behind me!" Tails shouted.

"FIRE!"

The lens flashed white and green as a large greenish laser shot out of the lens and forwards.

Sonic heard an electrical hum and felt his fur beginning to stand up. Then, all of the sudden, a flash of light on their right side caused both nearly to jump. When Sonic had opened his eyes a few seconds later, he found that the top and bottom wings on the right side had been sheered off, leaving only a smoking stump where they had been.

"Ah! We've been hit!" Tails said as he too saw the wings gone.

Immediately, the plane dipped on his left side, and began diving down, spiraling as it went. Sonic was immediately smacked on the side of the head by the tail, and lost consciousness. As he did such, he fell off of the tail and plummeted toward the earth below.

Tails did not see what had happened to Sonic, but he saw that his instruments were reading overheating parts and that fire was spreading inside the engine core.

"Bail out! Bail out!" Tails screamed and jumped out of the cockpit. He fell several more feet when he looked at the plane, and saw it explode as the fire reached the fuel tank. The blast itself knocked him out.

- - - - -

Back in Station Square, a large purple cat had exited out of the Twinkle Park lift. He looked a little sad.

"Oh, Froggy. Where did you go? I miss you."

He dragged his feet along the pavement, and the way his head and his shoulders were drooped, you couldn't help feeling sorry for the guy.

He entered the train station and trotted toward the train, when he heard a "ribbit." He looked around excited.

"That sounded like Froggy!"

He climbed the stairs just in time to see a large tailed frog hop into a train car, and the door shut behind him.

"Ah, there you are! I'm coming Froggy!"

- - - - -

"Whoa, that was a little rough."

Knuckles panted after spending almost all day trying to find shards in Fire Lake Wilderness. He discovered that it was not called Fire Lake just so it would sound cool, but since it was at the foot of Red Mountain, an active volcano made of red rock mixed with basalt and such, there were lava flows that spread across the wilderness. Vents also contributed their fair share of steam and sometimes a little ash.

Knuckles had succeeded to find five shards in the wilderness and he came out sweaty and covered in ash, making his red hide look more "mahoganyish."

"I hope I found all the shards in there; that place is like the pit of--" Knuckles stopped himself as he found a clear pool of water along the way he was walking. "Now that's a sight that is welcome."

He took off his ash-covered gloves and scooped up some water and splashed it into his face, sighing in contentment at how cold and good it felt.

He took his steel shovel-claws and washed off all the dirt and rock from the inside and outside.

"These suckers have already been through a lot," Knuckles said as he robbed his fingers on the top. "I hope they don't rust."

Knuckles slipped his gloves back on, and the steel claws over that. He began to walk towards the dam again toward where Angel Island rested, when suddenly a pink light flew right by his face.

"Whoa! What was that?" Knuckles looked around and saw the light floating upwards the path that lead northward and toward the river.

"Uh-uh, no way!" Knuckles waved his arms out in front of him. "I'm not going back into that stormy valley! I'm staying right here!" Knuckles pointed to the ground where he stood.

The light flew back and…was it speaking?

"You must come with me, or the rest of the world will succumb to the same fate as our ancestors."

"Our ancestors?" Knuckles looked skeptical.

"Just come on!"

Knuckles growled in frustration, and began to follow the light, calling it a fairy for relative sake.

The "fairy" led Knuckles for several miles, but Knuckles didn't notice this, for he was thinking about the phrase "our ancestors." What did she mean exactly?

The fairy led Knuckles to an old stone bridge that spanned the river. The bridge was rather narrow and could only be walked on one at a time. The bridge also had the "keystone" section missing in the middle, making a small hole in the bridge.

"Now what?" Knuckles looked at the light.

"Cross it."

"Do I look like I have dumbbell written across my face? That bridge definitely does not look solid. I should know."

"You can glide, can't you? Just get up to the highest point and glide across from there. Hurry! We are running out of time!"

"All right, all right!" Knuckles tested the stone bridge with his foot. It seemed solid enough.

Taking another step and another, one after the other, he slowly came to the hole in the bridge. Through such, he looked down at the torrent of the river below.

"Hurry, Knuckles!"

That's another thing: She knows too much, Knuckles thought.

Knuckles looked down again, took a deep breath, and jumped across the hole in the bridge, arms forward. The air caught him and he glided gently to the other shore.

Knuckles landed on his feet, and looked back at the bridge. How old is that bridge anyway?

The light once again goaded Knuckles on to hurry and Knuckles was once again trudging to where Knuckles did not know.

The sun was beginning to sink into the west when the two came upon a small cave where a stream was pouring out of it.

"You must go in."

Knuckles looked into the cave and sniffed: didn't seem anything wrong with the place.

"All right, but if one thought gets into the back of my head, or at least one hair on the back of my neck raises, I'm outta here."

Knuckles trudged into the soft earth of the cave. The fairy fluttered before, giving light to the darkness and to guide Knuckles through.

It mustn't have been a big cave, for only a few minutes after entering, Knuckles saw the other end ahead, where the stream poured in. Upon exiting, Knuckles found himself in a moist jungle, and by the looks of it, the darkness was already coming in fast as there was very little sunlight beneath the canopy to begin with.

The fairy flew on straight when it stopped and turned sharply to the left. Knuckles jogged after it and saw that it had flew into a stone house taken over by overgrowth of the jungle. The fairy was floating over a piece of stone on a pedestal.

Wait, it wasn't a stone statue, it was a statue made of silver! Knuckles picked up the statue and looked over it: It was a silver statue of a falcon, perched and looking royal. An inscription was written on the base. Knuckles cringed his eyes to see, and could barely make it out. It was in an old language, but Knuckles knew it by heart, for it was the ancient Echidnaen dialect of Old Möbianese. It read:

"Two falcon statues…a door to the past."

"The other statue is nearby! Find it and get to the ancient ruins! Hurry!"

With that, just like someone turning off a light, the fairy winked out, leaving Knuckles alone, holding the silver statue.

"Now, it seems I must find the statue, and maybe figure out what is going on here…"

With that, Knuckles stepped out into the gathering darkness of the jungle.

Chapter 11: Separated!  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was setting in the west in Station Square, and the mid-afternoon traffic was slowly dying down. In the City Hall part of the Square, a few pedestrians were milling about on their business. One was a little hedgehog girl wearing a red ribbon in her pink spines, a red dress with a short "skirt," and red boots with a white stripe on the front.

Amy Rose.

She was carrying a sack of various groceries and looked bored and hot.

"Oh, I'm bored, and it's so hot out here!" Amy sighed, even though this wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last that she said that. "Things were a lot better when I was back living up north…with my hero, Sonic." Amy sighed again, but this time with an affectionate passion.

"He was always there to save the day and blow those bad robots away."

Amy remembered one time when she was attacked by a blue robot with glowing, red eyes, but Sonic came out of nowhere and, not knowing who she was, snatched up Amy and ran off, followed by the robot, but Sonic outran him. This was the first sign that Amy would have a crush on Sonic, which Sonic would resent.

A few years later, Amy's family moved down the Sapphire City to escape robotization from Dr. Robotnik. Amy knew it was for the best, but oh, how she missed Sonic.

"But now he's gone, and I'm just…here doing groceries. Same old place, different days."

Suddenly a huge shadow covered the square in sub-darkness.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Amy looked around in confusion. "The weatherman today didn't forecast a storm or anything. Is it an eclipse?"

Amy knew that one should not look in the direction of the sun when an eclipse was happening, but she needed to know. The good news was that it wasn't an eclipse; lucky for Amy, but the bad news was that an enormous ship the size of a skyscraper was flying over the city.

People stopped their cars and looked up in shock and fear, as the red ship slowly flew over. The word "alien spaceship" flashed in a lot of the people's minds at that time. Amy didn't realize that the bag she was holding had fallen form her now lifeless hands as the ship flew over. As it did, she saw a golden insignia of a round-headed man wearing eye-glasses and a large moustache.

"Robotnik, can it be?"

Amy saw something fly out of the ship that looked like a piece of confetti from a distance, but Amy was too distracted by the immense size of the ship. How could something so big fly?

Suddenly, something hit her between the eyes sharply, causing her to see a flash of white.

"Ow! What was that?" When she got her vision back, she was sitting down on the pavement rubbing her head and looked beside her. A small blue bird was lying on the ground.

"Hey, watch where you're going, buddy!"

Amy noticed that the bird didn't move; the run-in must've hurt him more then it did Amy.

"Hey, are you okay?" Amy picked up the bird. It didn't look like it had broken anything, but it looked dazed. "Don't worry; I'll take care of you until you get better."

Suddenly, a large metallic thud resounded behind her. Naturally she looked behind her to see what it was.

It was a robot that looked more like a glorified trashcan. It had long, skinny arms with fingerless hands on them. Its eyes were red, emotionless and featureless. A large, yellow "0" was on its "chest."

The robot, Zero, looked at Amy, then at the bird in her hands; the robot made some beeping noises like it was processing something (kind of like R2-D2), and found that the bird was the same that had escaped from the Egg Carrier.

Not hesitating, he charged, arms forward to grab the bird. Amy leapt out of the way, letting out a cry of surprise and huddled against the wall of a nearby building. Zero turned after a few seconds of moving and wondering where the bird and the hedgehog went.

"You almost ran over me, you tin head!"

Zero scanned the area again, and found the bird in Amy's hands again, and charged again.

Amy decided to get out of here.

"Oh, no! He's chasing us!"

Amy ran as fast as she could, but being not much of a runner, due to young age and just not running well, Zero was catching up ever so slowly.

Amy saw a door on her right, and thought the bad robot to be too big to fit into the door. Not hesitating, she threw open the doors and ran inside, shutting the doors behind her. She took the bird and hid under a table.

Zero looked dumbfounded: the bird and the girl disappeared! Looking into glass windows for any sign of her or the bird, he slowly began to leave, puzzled.

Amy got up from under the table and peered out the window. "Is he gone?"

She looked around, and saw no sign of the green and black robot. "Whew! That was a close one."

The bird gave a squeak, and Amy let it go, saying "sorry."

Amy sat down on the seat on the table, and the bird perched on a napkin dispenser. "I wonder why he was after us…"

The bird seemed curious at his reflection on the metal outside of the dispenser, and chirped in curiosity.

Amy looked at the bird. "Hey, was he after you, Birdy? I bet he was, and you must've got off that big ship of Robotnik's and escaped, and now he's after you! Oh…" Amy petted the bird. "Don't worry; I'll protect you from that bad robot."

Amy got up and made for the door, and Birdy followed her, fluttering along. Amy got outside and looked around again for any sign of Zero, but there was none. She did find her grocery bag, spilled on the pavement.

"Oh, no! My mom's groceries!" Amy ran up and inspected the spilled food. Nothing was damaged or broken. Amy breathed a sigh of relief. "My mom would've killed me if I broke something in here."

Amy picked up the bag, and Birdy, deciding he needed a rest, nestled inside the bag. Amy laughed as she thought that the bird nestling among celery and cabbage looked cute.

"My mom's at the hotel. She works there as a maid, you know?" Amy said to Birdy, but Amy saw that his beak was tucked under his wing. "Oh, he's asleep. How cute…" Amy said quietly so as to not upset Birdy.

- - - - -

Tails wasn't sure how far he fell nor how long he fell, but all he knew was that one moment, he had bailed out of a red biplane, the next, was laying on his back on a bank of a stream in the jungle.

"Oh, what happened?" Tails sat up, and noticed that he was dripping wet. "Brr, I wish I had a blanket now."

Tails looked around, and noticed that he was sitting in the darkness of a deep jungle. Tails looked up. The sun must be setting.

"Uh oh, looks like it's gonna get dark soon. Sonic, we have to get out of here!"

No response came. Tails looked around and found nobody.

"Sonic?"

Still, no response. It soon sank into Tails' heart that…he was alone.

Slowly, a tear came down his face, for this was the first time that he was alone without his hero. Tails sat back down on the stream bank.

He remembered the time several years before when he was just four but still had a love for machines even at such a young age. He kept making little gadgets and doohickeys for a hobby, for he was without friends because of his odd-character trait: his two tails.

He remembered one particular time when he made a homing device pretty much out of nothing and was playing with it in the deep woods, when three or four bullies cane around and took his gadget. Calling him names like "freak-boy" and "nerd," one bully held Tails still while the leader took the homing device and set it on a tree stump, and another kid had a big stick in his hand.

Tails guessed immediately what they were going to do. "No, don't do that! That device took me months to make!"

"Quiet, freak boy!" The leader hissed, and took the stick in his hand and raised it high.

"No! Stay away!"

Too late; the leader brought down the stick, which smashed the device into two pieces.

The three bullies left, jeering and laughing at Tails. Tails took his broken gadget and started crying in the very spot.

Suddenly, Tails heard a large boom sound in the distance, and a few seconds later, another guy ran up. It was a blue hedgehog wearing two red sneakers with white straps and brass buckles. Tails sneaked behind a bush and watched this guy with interest.

For some reason, the hedgehog seemed to notice that he was not alone, for he looked around for a few seconds and bolted away with a flurry of feet down the path.

Tails only saw a blur of the hedgehog. "Whoa! That guy's fast, and is cool!" Tails ran off after him, the two pieces of the gadget still in his hand. "I wonder where he's going…"

Tails had an inkling that he wouldn't find him, but he might as well try. Tails ran after him for several minutes, when the path ended and came to a beach. It wasn't barren, but a single red biplane was parked on the beach. His love for machines began to surface as he saw the biplane, sleek and clean.

He looked into the cockpit. "Wow, this plane looks like it can get quite a speed, but I think I can make it even faster."

Tails found a toolbox underneath the pilot's seat, and took it out. He opened the lid to the engine compartment and began adjusting several things, cleaning out any dirty gears, and was so preoccupied with this plane.

"I wonder who owns this plane. Oh, well. I hope he won't mind the fix-up job I'm giving it."

He began adjusting the power core of the plane when he heard--

"What do you think you're doing?"

Tails jumped and spun around, thinking it was another bully. It was the same blue hedgehog that Tails saw earlier that day, cross arms and eyes scoping out the plane.

Tails jumped off, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry; when I see a cool machine, I can't help myself."

The hedgehog stepped forward and peered into the engine compartment. "Hmm, love what you did in here."

Tails smiled in delight. "Come and see what else I did!"

Tails showed him the new adjustments to the power core which can make the plane go faster and run more smoothly at the same time.

"So, you've been following me around all morning just to check out my airplane…"

Tails blanched. How could he have guessed?

"…or is there something else you want?"

Tails sat down on the wing. "Well, I like to build and repair stuff, so everyone else in the forest makes fun of me…well, that and because of these." Tails showed his two tails, to which the hedgehog lifted his eyebrows in interest. "You looked cool, so I followed you and when I found your plane, I thought I'd fix it up and we…we could be friends." Tails looked down sheepishly.

The hedgehog took in this story in, and then asked, "Well, what's your name, pal?"

"Miles Prower…uh, but everyone calls me Tails."

"Sonic's my name, running fast is my game."

Sonic put his hand on the metal body of the plane. "Nice job, Tails. I can always use a mechanic…" Sonic smiled. "…and a friend."

Tails looked surprised. "You mean that?"

Sonic flashed a thumbs-up and winked. "Ha, you bet!"

Tails sat on the back of the stream in the darkness of the jungle, reflecting on other memories, like another time when bullies came along and tried again to emotionally hurt Tails by breaking another gadget, but Sonic was within earshot of Tails' pleas to stop, and came rushing along and gave the bullies a beat down that they would never forget. Needless to say, the bullies never gave Tails a problem…again.

"I owe so much to Sonic," Tails said quietly. "I hope he's okay."

He then got up and began wondering on what to do. Sonic would want him to try getting maybe another Chaos Emerald, or maybe getting something to fight "Eggman" with. Tails could probably do both, but the Tornado needs a Chaos Emerald to run. That left one thing: find a Chaos Emerald. He began thinking about what colors to look for. Eggman got the red one first, then the white one, and in one instant took the purple and the green ones by a misunderstanding by Knuckles. That left three more: light blue, yellow and deep blue.

"I hope I can find one in this jungle; it could be anywhere! But I have to try…"

Tails took a deep breath like he was going to jump into water, and began walking down the beaten paths of the jungle.

- - - - -

"Oh, where am I?"

Sonic lay on his back on a beach, moaning. He didn't at first know why, but all he knew was that he was soaking wet and every muscle ached.

"Are you all right, sir?" someone said.

Sonic sat up and looked at the speaker: It was a young girl wearing thick glasses, a red blouse covered by a white sleeveless dress, and red-and-white striped stockings with brown shoes. She also had brown hair cut short just above the shoulders.

"I saw you fall into the ocean and I pulled you ashore. I thought you died."

Sonic stood up and shook the sand from his spines. Besides the aches in his body, he didn't feel too bad. "Have you seen a two-tailed fox anywhere?"

She shook her head. "No, I didn't see anyone like that."

Sonic's heart turned to stone. What if Tails was…no, mustn't think about that. Just look for him.

"I gotta go…" he said to the girl, muttering, "Oh, I hope he's okay."

He ran along the beach at a run, looking to and fro for any sign of a two-tailed fox. "Maybe he got back to the hotel," Sonic breathed, eyeing the hotel in the distance, and since he fell in water, Tails' must've too, so he must've went back to the room for a blanket, considering earlier that morning.

In a few minutes, he got to the swimming pool area and entered through the doors. The hotel manager was going over some bookwork at the front desk.

"Excuse me…"

The manager looked up to Sonic.

"Have you seen a two-tailed fox come in, about…yay-high?" Sonic raised his hand to a little above his neck to show an estimated height.

"No, I'm afraid I have not, but considering how long I've been at this paperwork, he might've slipped in without me noticing."

"Ok, thanks." Sonic nearly hit the elevator door running.

Sonic went up the elevator, foot tapping as the elevator seemed to crawl upwards. When it finally got to his floor, he made to his hotel room, nearly mowing down two other residents in the hall.

When he got to his room, he shouted Tails' name in every room, but was severely disappointed when he discovered that Tails was not there.

"C'mon, pal, where are you?"

Sonic, spines slightly drooping walked back out of the room and back to the elevator.

Where is he? Sonic thought in his mind again and again and again. He reached the hotel lobby and decided that he'll wait there for Tails. If he was anywhere near, he'd likely come to the hotel first.

When he sat down at the bench, he still didn't feel any better. He sat in front of the unlit fireplace and kept looking back at the door when it opened.

That was when his troubles, or what he called his troubles, began.

He heard the door open again, and turned his head. There was a pink-furred hedgehog, dressed in a red dress and boots, had a red ribbon in her spines which were styled to be like a cross with human hair and Echidnaen dreadlocks.

Sonic froze, and his spines rose to attention. He knew who that was, and it was painfully obvious that she knew who he was and had not forgotten anything.

"Oh, Amy, please, don't look this direction…"

Sonic slouched so low that he was convinced that Amy couldn't see him at all.

"Hey! Is that Sonic?" someone shouted from the side.

Sonic flashed a look that could've incinerated anyone on the spot toward the speaker, but it was too late.

"Hey, Sonic!" came that high, insistent voice that Sonic grew to dread.

Sonic turned and saw Amy strutting towards him like a lover. Sonic winced. Not again…

"Long time no see, huh?" Amy said.

"Uh, hi, Amy." Sonic swallowed a boulder and forced himself to wave.

Amy appeared to notice Sonic's nervousness. "What's wrong with you?"

Sonic didn't respond, but if it were clinically possible, he would've been sweating enough to leave a puddle.

"Listen, Sonic: this little bird seems to be in trouble, so you need to be his bodyguard for a while."

"WHAT?" Sonic's spines erected to straight lines in shock. "You must be kidding!"

"Even if you say 'no,' we'll just tag along anyway."

Sonic imagined the next day's headlines: Unknown Hedgehog Commits Suicide in Heavy Traffic to Escape Pesky Girlfriend and Bird.

"No way!" Sonic turned and darted up the stairs.

"Hey, don't go!" Amy moaned and ran after Sonic, even though she knew that she couldn't get Sonic by running after him, but she tried anyway.

Chapter 12: That Girl's Such a Pain!  
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Tails was shivering with cold and fatigue, but he couldn't do anything to stop it, for he was stranded in this deep and dark jungle, lost and hungry. It was enough to make him cry, but he couldn't do that.

Suddenly, his foot caught on something and he stumbled, falling on his face.

"What was that?"

After brushing the dirt from his face, he sat up and groped for it in the darkness. His hand fell on something made of metal, and cold. He grabbed onto it and pulled. It was stuck.

Tails, out of curiosity, began to dig at the base, stopping awhile to tug on the object to see if it would budge. It took several attempts, but he finally got the object out from the earth.

"Oh, I wish I could see better in this dark; it'd be great if I found treasure."

Tails felt around the object: On the top, and what Tails assumed to be the front, was a projection that felt like the beak of a bird, more like a hawk or falcon. He found two round "out-dentions" that felt like eyes.

"Whatever it is, it must be worth something."

Something stirred in the bushes, and Tails froze. He didn't even think about wild animals out here in the jungle. Tails began to whimper and slowly skid back away from the bushes. He hit a tree as he crawled backwards, and hoped that this "thing" in the bushes wasn't hungry.

"Who's making that dang whimpering?" someone shouted…from the bushes.

"Who--who is it?" Tails said, still worried.

"The name's Knuckles!" the same someone shouted out.

"Knuckles?" Tails stood up and sighed with relief. "Oh, Knuckles! It's me, Tails!"

"Tails?" The red echidna stepped out, his red hide contrasting the darkness around him. "What the heck are you doing out here in this god-forsaken jungle?"

"I got lost out there."

"I thought you were with Sonic, chasing Eggman."

"Well, we were, until Robotnik decided to shoot us out of the sky with some giant laser. Sonic and I got separated somehow, and…well…I'm here."

Knuckles sighed thoughtfully, and then said, "What's that thing in your hand?"

"You can see it? It's nearly pitch-black out here!"

"Something being the Island Guardian can do for you: I can see things better." Knuckles fingered the top of the object. "It looks like you found a gold falcon statue."

"Gold?" Tails said in shock.

"Yes, and that was what I was looking for. I have a silver one here."

"Uh, Knuckles? I can't see too well in the dark."

Knuckles chuckled. "Sorry. Hey, have you found a Chaos Emerald yet?"

"No, but I was looking for one when I tripped over this statue."

"Well, I found one not too far from here."

Tails was nearly yelling. "Where?"

"Calm down, in exchange for the statue, I'll take you there."

"It's a deal!" Tails handed Knuckles the statue.

"Take my hand; it's kind of rocky on this path."

Knuckles led Tails over several rocks and fallen logs on the path; Tails was glad that Knuckles was leading for he couldn't see a thing in this dark jungle.

"Here it is, right where I found it."

Tails looked around Knuckles, and saw a gem omitting a deep blue light.

"Ah, the dark blue one. Cool."

"Well, that concludes my end of the deal; I have to get going."

Knuckles waked two paces away, and tripped over a branch on the path.

"I thought you said that you could see in the dark!" Tails called out after him.

"Say that again and I'll turn those blue eyes of your to black ones!" Knuckles called back.

Tails stifled a giggle and ran to pick up the Chaos Emerald, but suddenly, out of the nearby bushes jumped the biggest frog Tails had ever seen.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?"

The frog croaked, hopped up to the Chaos Emerald, and snatched it up with his mouth.

"Hey! That's mine!" Tails protested.

The frog began to hop away, Chaos Emerald in mouth.

"Stooooop!" Tails cried out, giving chase.

- - - - -

Sonic hid in the hotel for almost a whole hour, and his nerved were nearly shot when it seemed that every time he turned a corner, Amy seemed to be there.

He would've hid longer, but an empty stomach can rule this hedgehog. Sonic trudged to the cafeteria, and Amy found him there soon after.

Sonic sulked and ate with a defeated look as Amy watched him almost constantly.

Oh, why did she have to come here? Sonic thought to himself, eyeing Amy, who for the first time was giving bread crumbs to Birdy who was chirping happily.

Sonic got up to leave, but as he thought it would be, Amy followed him, starry-eyed.

It was when they were walking down the sidewalk near Twinkle Park and the old warehouse when something changed. Sonic stood to watch the surf, thinking about Tails and what would happen if he just told Amy to go away, when Amy suddenly shouted.

"Oh, no! It's that bad robot!"

Sonic spun around and saw the glorified trashcan, Zero, about a block away. Sonic stood between Amy and Zero. "Don't worry; he's just a chunk of cheesy hardware."

Amy suddenly let out a scream.

"Now what?" Sonic turned to face Amy. "Huh?"

Amy was staring up at the Twinkle Park sign, and there was a Scrolling Marquis that was saying the special that night.

"Look, Sonic! It says 'Cute couples get in free!' Let's go!" Amy did not hesitate, but got into the elevator that led up to Twinkle Park.

"Amy! Wai-wai-wat-wait!" Sonic stammered, but Amy was gone up already.

"Oh, I give up. She's such a pain!" Sonic flew his arms up in irritation and climbed into the elevator when it came down.

- - - - -

"Froggy, where are you?"

Big was walking around in the main area of the Mystic Ruins, calling out Froggy's name every once in a while. He was having no luck catching his frog pal. Sure, he kept seeing him, but catching him he could not do.

Big's stomach growled; he hadn't eaten since the previous night.

"Oh, I'm so hungry. I wish Froggy was here and we could go fishing together and have them for dinner."

Big looked around in the twilight of the surroundings; the only thing he found was a small pond covered with lily pads.

"Oh, maybe there are fish in it, but I'd better start a fire so I can cook them first."

Big looked around for any wood he could find. He found some old timbers near the mouth of a cave that had a lot of wind blowing around inside.

He took the wood and took it down near the pond shore and set them up to prepare the wood for a fire. He broke several pieces and fastened them together with some spare fishing line so he could use a spit to put the fish on, which was helped by finding forked twigs on the ground in places.

He then took two stones and began striking them repeatedly together. After several tries, he succeeded to create a spark on the wood, which ignited into a modest flame, which Big fed with soft blows of air and some twigs to get the fire started.

After being satisfied at the fire that was building, he took his fishing rod and cast into the water. He sat down, waiting for the bobber on the surface to indicate if there was any nibbling at the bait.

"I like fishing here, but if only Froggy was here, and we could have fun."

- - - - -

Knuckles stumbled through the thick vegetation and was constantly scraping himself against some stone slabs, standing vertical on several areas along the path.

"Dang pieces of stone," Knuckles would mumble over and over again as he slowly advanced through the rapidly darkening jungle.

It wasn't long after when he came to a clearing: it was surrounded by four stone walls with doorways, the posts studded with colored stones. In the center was a tall pyramid, not like the pyramids of Ancient Egypt as you may sometimes think, but more like a pyramid of the Old Latin American style where the civilizations like the Maya and the Aztec nations would sacrifice to their pagan gods.

"Hmm, interesting…"

This wasn't the first pyramid that he had ever seen, for there were a few more in the ruined city of Sandopolis on the Floating Island, deep in the Topaz Desert. It was the similarity in architecture that he found interesting.

The pyramid was decorated with jade murals, and had two stone falcons that seemed to guard the front stairs. At the top of these stairs was a snake head, jadestones for eyes and it seemed to stare unblinking into the jungle.

"I've seen this particular temple before, but where?"

Knuckles began to climb the stairs and look up and down the murals. He wished he had more time for studying these strange murals, but that fairy told him to hurry.

Hurry to do what?

Knuckles began circling the pyramid while on the middle level, the one with the snake head. When he reached the side opposite of the snake head, he found two stone platforms: One gold, the other silver.

"Bingo. This must be what I'm supposed to be looking for."

Knuckles pulled out the two statues that he had earlier put in his backpack along with the shards. He placed the two statues in their respective places. At once, something changed. The area between the two platforms omitted a bright yellow light, illuminating the whole side of the pyramid, causing Knuckles to blink at the sudden brightness.

It was a long while before Knuckles thought it safe to open his eyes again, but when he did, the first thing he noticed was that the area where the light had shown from was nothing but a dark pit, leading down deep into the pyramid.

"Ok, now what?"

The fairy fluttered by and whisked down the pit. Knuckles scratched his head.

"I guess I'm supposed to go down…oh, I hope I don't regret this…"

Knuckles set his claws into the rock, which crumbled due to age, not helping Knuckles' worry any. He slowly descended into the pyramid. It was a long way down, and Knuckles guessed that the fairy was leading him into some deep chamber of the temple.

He had climbed down a good one-hundred feet when the vertical tunnel stopped and opened into a room. It wasn't dark as one would normally think, this being a place where the sun never shines, but was alight with a cold blue radiance.

Knuckles dropped down, which was a little farther then he had assumed and hurt his feet. Cursing, he looked around and saw that this room had a large pool of water. Three fourths of the area was covered with water.

"Where am I?"

Knuckles began to walk down several chambers alit with the same blue light. He discovered that the light was coming from phosphorescent crystals that were carved into the mosaic murals.

"Keen; this is like the lighting that is used in the Hidden Palace caverns," Knuckles thought out loud, listening to his own echo travel down the halls. "Just what am I looking for?"

- - - - - -

Sonic and Amy were walking down the walkways deep inside Twinkle Park. Sonic was still rather sullen about the fact of taking Amy out to an amusement park, and rarely spoke. Amy didn't appear to notice and was just talking away the night. The stars came out above and the lights of the park blazed on in the night.

Sonic thought that this night was one of his worst of his thirteen-year life, but that changed when Amy asked Sonic to try out the Twinkle Circuit Course. He shrugged and mumbled that he didn't care and Amy led him and Birdy there.

Birdy was confused at the lights and the noise. How could anyone enjoy a place like this?

They came to beginning of the Circuit, and they, along with six other kids, took their chosen bumper cars. Amy chose the pink one respectively, and Sonic chose a green one, since some kid beat him to the dark blue one.

The first part was a practice round, of which Sonic was banged around from a lot of the sides, and what surprised him the most was that a lot of the hits came from Amy's car. Sonic returned a few rams of his own. It was a good five minutes of this when the doors opened, showing a long track, vanishing into darkness.

"Cool! Now we're going to have fun!" squealed Amy.

Over the opening was a countdown meter, counting down from 3…

2…

1…

At "0," Sonic put the pedal to the metal and zoomed out in front. The Circuit was littered with various speed boosters and some traps, so Sonic tried to avoid the traps and maneuver onto the speed boosters.

Thinking that Amy was clear back behind him, he looked around at the stars floating above. Where those real?

A sudden knock from behind nearly gave him whiplash. Spinning around, he found that Amy had rear-ended him while he was out in space, in a matter of speaking.

"Amy!"

"Ha, I got you!" Amy smiled and raced off in front.

"Oh, no you don't, girl!" Sonic raced after her, intending to slam right into her. But before any of them realized it, the "pavement" below vanished suddenly and both went airborne. Amy screamed as one would expect a girl to when something frightening and unexpected happens, and Sonic thought his heart stopped as his green car seemed to be floating in space.

Then, gravity took hold and the two cars dropped like stone, and they crashed onto the roadway with a crack.

"That was awesome!" Amy squealed.

As if nothing had happened, Sonic and Amy began racing each other over the Circuit. Sonic's thoughts about Amy began to raise when he noticed since the last time they saw each other, Amy had matured some and was having fun like Sonic was. Maybe she isn't so bad…

Both cars suddenly hit a speed ramp that sent both cars soaring into the star-studded sky again. Sonic looked below and his heart froze when he couldn't see the Circuit below. What does happen if one misses the track? Does he hit the ground and possibly injure himself or does it keep going?

Before he realized it, the Circuit reappeared just a half-second before he slammed into the roadway again.

Now that was freaky, thought Sonic, seeing Amy crash down behind him.

Amy looked like she went through a wind tunnel, and Birdy, riding in Amy's lap, looked dizzy.

The two kept racing, but Amy pulled out in front. Suddenly, Amy slowed down, and Sonic slammed into Amy's car from behind.

"Sorry; I didn't know we were supposed to slow down." Sonic smiled sheepishly.

The two parked their cars and left the Twinkle Circuit. Amy was trying to consul Birdy that everything was all right. Birdy looked like he was in shock, and Sonic couldn't help laughing at the surprised look that Birdy displayed.

They walked further along, bustling through the crowds that seemed to be denser then a herd of lemmings. Sonic and Amy soon came to a roller coaster.

"How 'bout we try the coaster?" Sonic suggested.

"Sure!" Amy said.

The two got in, being what the Twinkle Park employees a "cute couple," without payment. It was still a few minutes before the ride actually started, due to the delay of loading the roller coaster fully, and the lag in time of starting such a machine. When it finally started, it lurched forward and began crawling up the large "hill."

Sonic looked around at the surrounding landscape. The entire roller coaster ride wrapped around the whole park. It also gave a nice view of the Arcade Palace, sometimes called Pleasure Castle.

Sonic had been so enamored about the dazzle of the lights and view that he did not realize that the coaster came up to the pinnacle of the rise and then suddenly ride forward with such a sudden acceleration that Sonic later swore that he left his appendix behind.

Sonic and Amy gripped their seats as the roller coaster went through loops. Amy pretty much screamed through the entire time (you know, the kind of screaming where you don't breath for a dangerously long time). 

The whole ride took about ten minutes and circled through the entire coaster circuit thrice. When the ride finally stopped, Sonic and Amy were a sight: Sonic looked like he relived Windy Valley, and Amy's hair looked like it was just barely on her head, all strewn back and twisted around in weird patterns.

"Wow, Amy, are you a sight…"

Amy immediately began smoothing out her hair as Sonic tried to find something to look into for a reflection of his face so he could smooth out his spines, but was having no luck.

After several unsuccessful attempts to straighten out themselves, the two just went as they were. They decided to brave the crowds and lights of the Arcade Palace.

"So, Amy, what do you want to do? Try out the skating rink? Or maybe try out the Planet Invaders Game? How 'bout…"

"Robots!" Amy suddenly shouted out.

"There's a game called that?"

"No, it's Robotnik's robot! That…Zero!"

Sonic spun around and saw the robot, Zero, looking around searching for something. Then, his red eyes locked onto Amy and saw the bird.

"Whoa! How did he get in here?" Sonic shouted, taking a defensive stance. "Get back, Amy…no! Get into that mirror maze and get to the other side a.s.a.p.!"

"Ok, Sonic," Amy said, voice edged in nervousness as she grabbed Birdy and ran as fast as she could for the Mirror Maze.

Sonic and Zero seemed to have a stare down for a while, but Sonic decided to strike first. He curled into a ball of spines and struck the robot in the lower region below the "shoulders."

Zero was knocked back, stunned. Master Robotnik did not program him to face Sonic or even intend to even meet Sonic, but he did know some maneuvers to get past crowds; just move your arms about to move obstacles. He whipped his arms about to move that hedgehog out of the way.

Sonic was knocked out of the way and into an arcade machine, toppling it. Fortunately for the people around were nowhere near it, but unfortunately for Sonic, it was one of the most painful experiences in his life.

He was lying on the ground, moaning and covered with bits of glass. Several people were leaning over him saying things that Sonic couldn't understand, but he thought they were just wondering if he was alright.

Sonic pushed himself up, his arms shaking as he strained himself to get up. He felt like he was slammed into a wreaking ball…no, make that a shelf full of bowling balls.

He stood up and brushed off some pieces of glass, and looked at the machine, which looked like it was totaled.

The first thing he experienced was the intensified conversation of the concerned people around. He kept saying "I'm okay," and "No broken bones or bleeding," and such. The first thing he thought of was Amy.

He ran up to the maze and shouted Amy's name everywhere in the maze, minding several broken pieces of glass. Amy did not respond.

"Oh, shoot; I've lost Amy…and I bet that robot hauled butt after her."

Chapter 12: Two Visions  
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Tails spent all evening and into the night chasing after the frog that had nabbed his Emerald. He managed to corner the frog in a cave that seemed to lead nowhere and caught it. After a fierce tug-of-war match with the Emerald, Tails squeezed the frog's stomach gently, causing the Emerald to budge, and eventually pop out of the frog's mouth.

"Aha! I got it!" Tails stood in the mouth of the cave, frog under one arm and the Emerald in the other hand.

The cave mouth was in an area where the moonlight could get in along the cliff wall and give light to Tails for a short distance. In this pale light, Tails noticed something unusual about the frog he had captured.

"Hey, why in the world do you have a tail? You must not have lost it as you grew up…odd."

The frog only croaked.

Tails began walking down the path, still talking to himself. "I gotta show you to Sonic when I find him; he'll think this is so cool."

Several paces later, a red ball of light fluttered by in front of Tails, startling him.

"Whoa, what was that?" Tails stopped to look at the light, which was now fluttering to and fro in front of him. Was it just him, or did it have a bit of a tail, or was that fairy dust?

Suddenly, the light flew up and into Tails' eyes, blinding him.

Tails stood blinking, rubbing his eyes as he tried to readjust his vision as it was whacked by darkness and sudden light. When his eyes readjusted, he found himself on a path, but it was broad daylight. The jungle disappeared and he found himself in an ancient city, complete with stone houses, temples and ceremonial fires for sacrifices.

"Wha--where am I?"

Tails looked in his hands and were shocked to find that both the frog and the Emerald were gone.

"Oh, no! Where'd they go?"

Tails began looking frantically around for the two, more so the Emerald. He ran up and down the paths, looking left and right for anything resembling a large, blue gem, but couldn't even find anything, except some mosaics of something he didn't know about.

Soon, he came to the center of the city which stood a mighty pyramid, decorated with lapis lazuli and jade mosaics, stone statues and many colored stones.

"Cool," Tails naturally thought. "But this doesn't help me any. Where am I?"

He came up to the steps of the temple, wh

ich stood a little Echidna girl, not much older then himself and dressed in traditional dress of high-class Echidnaen society, but Tails had no knowledge of such things.

The girl seemed to be concentrated on something, and Tails thought it to be quietly reciting something…

"The servers are the seven Chaos…" Tails didn't hear the last word.

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but since he was interested in Chaos Emeralds right now, he thought this would help.

It was then that the girl sensed that she was not alone, and she turned to face Tails. She seemed pleasant and welcoming.

"Hello, friend. How are you?"

"I'm fine, but a little lost. I haven't been here before."

The little girl giggled, but said politely, "You are in the grand city of the Sapphire Colony, my people. We originally came from the Island of the Guardians, but our population grew too great for the Island, so many of us are in different colonies on the Great Land."

Tails was confused, but didn't let on. "Thanks, and I don't mean to intrude, but what were you saying about Chaos?"

"It was a poem that my grandmother taught me before she took the journey into the sun; I am never to forget it. It goes like this:

"The servers are the seven Chaos,  
Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart,  
The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos…"

Tails scratched his head as he heard this. "That's a nice poem, but I thought chaos was really a lack of order…"

"Yes, I know, but Chaos is also a special power that binds us all together. I'm not sure how Chaos came to being, but all I know that there are special warriors that can manipulate the power of Chaos to their bidding. They live on the Island of the Guardians and protect the seven Chaos Emeralds."

"Emeralds?"

"Yes, there are seven Chaos Emeralds that each creates the power of Chaos around us. What I do not understand is the last line: The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."

Tails was rather confused at this. He knew that Sonic had some connection to the Chaos Emeralds, and when Robotnik took the Master Emerald once, Sonic somehow absorbed a large bit of energy and he changed from blue to a hot yellow. It made him more powerful then ever.

The girl looked at Tails. "I notice that you have two tails, friend."

Tails thoughts were interrupted as he looked down at his tails. Blushing, he said, "Yeah, I was born with them."

"It is something to be proud of: We are all unique and you have something that makes you more unique then anyone could've thought. Can you do anything with them?"

"Well, I can fly, kind of…" Tails demonstrated by jumping into the air, spinning his tails, hovering for a short time.

"That's good. Anything else?"

Tails landed and thought of anything else. "Well, I can spin around. It helps if I'm fighting."

Tails demonstrated this, straightening out his tails, and spinning one full revolution. The tails stuck out like blades, ready to clip anything that was in the way.

"Very nice. Can you do it longer?"

"I tried once, but I got very dizzy and fell down."

The girl seemed to think. "You could be even more dangerous if you could go longer." She then said, "You can try what the ceremonial dancers here do: they develop a rhythm that enables them to dance effectively without tiring."

Tails had mental pictures of a ceremonial dancer, spinning around with such a grace. He had seen these kinds of dancers in TV shows, but thought nothing of it, but now he realized that they seemed to dance for a long time without wearing out.

This gave Tails an idea. He began spinning, but instead on two feet flat on the ground, he balanced on the balls on one foot and spun, dipping and rising experimentally, switching feet to not overwork one foot. He spun for a good five seconds when dizziness began to set in. He stopped.

The girl praised him. "I think you found a way to do it. Now try to develop a rhythm as you dip and rise, and maybe match it with a rhythm of switching your feet."

Tails tried again, but this time switched feet each time as he dipped and fell. This helped and increased the time from five seconds to thirty.

"I'm getting it! I'm getting it!"

Tails tried again, thoughts about Chaos Emeralds driven from his mind, for what reason he never found, he saw this as very important. It was like combat training to his view.

He got to the point where he could spin for almost a full minute without the slightest hint of dizziness.

"I did it!" Tails whooped in delight.

The girl giggled in delight, and reached into a pouch on her side. "This is for you."

She took out a thing that looked like a badge that was decorated with a blue stone in the center and royal purple feathers. She clipped this to his fur on his chest.

"What's this?" Tails asked, looking down at it, studying the badge.

"This is the Rhythm Badge. I gave it to you so you can remember your training."

Tails lifted the bottom feather and rubbed his fingers on it. The girl looked as if she forgot something.

"Oh my, I can't believe it. We had all this time together and I never introduced myself!" The girl did a courtesy. "My name is Tikal, daughter of the chieftain here. And you are…"

Tails answered, "My name's Miles Prower, but I'm usually called Tails."

Suddenly, the city, Tikal and even the light disappeared. Tails was standing on grass instead of stone, and the sky was ablaze with stars. He found the he was handling the frog and the Emerald.

Was it a dream? No, for he still had the badge.

"Tikal? Where'd you go?" Tails called out.

The frog croaked.

"Oh hush."

Suddenly, he heard a voice. It wasn't Tikal, for it was too low and whoever it was, sounded like he was huge.

"Hey! You have my little buddy!"

Tails turned to see a big dark shape that was running up to him quickly. Suddenly, the shape tripped over something and fell over and almost on Tails, who jumped back out of pure fright.

"Yikes!"

Tails stood wide-eyed into the eyes of the stranger. His eyes glowed a yellowish color, and he had long, pointed ears. His body was fat and huge and he wore a belt. It was a big, purple cat, and if he was standing, he would be bigger then Robotnik!

The frog wriggled loose out of Tails grip and hopped away.

"Aw, now what am I going to do?" The cat sat up, but looked downcast.

"He was yours? I'm sorry," Tails apologized. "I should've held on tighter."

"It's okay. I'm having bad luck ever since Froggy swallowed my lucky charm." The cat stood up. "I'm Big. Did you see where Froggy went?"

Tails at first thought that "Big" was stating the obvious, but then he thought that "Big" must be his name. "I'm Tails, and I think the frog hopped away behind you, toward the train station.

"Thanks!" Big shook Tails' hand so hard that Tails checked twice later if it was still there. Big ran off toward the train station. "Wait for me, Froggy!"

"That was weird. Where was I?" Tails stood in the darkness thinking, then snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, the Chaos Emerald!" He lifted up the blue gem in his hand, which cast a royal blue glow on Tails' face. "Now I can hook this into the Tornado and go find Sonic!" Tails whooped and ran for his workshop.

- - - - -

Tails and Big weren't the only ones in Mystic Ruins that night. A red-and-white robot with yellow-glowing eyes had its night-vision array on and was looking for a creature that his master had commanded him to locate and retrieve.

He had been looking for a tailed-frog ever since early that afternoon, but he never could locate such. Rendezvous-time was the next day at fifteen hundred hours.

"Master will not be pleased about this," droned the robot to himself. "I must find the specimen before the required time. Intensify scanning."

Gamma began stomping his way through the darkness. He had checked all the possible locations to where a frog would live and came up empty.

He consulted a satellite that was in geosynchronous orbit above Sapphire Bay. He attained maps and researched these maps to find any other water sources besides the Mystic Ruins.

Could he be in the ocean? Negative. Frogs are freshwater creatures, and would not survive in saltwater conditions.

He found that several tributaries of a river near Sapphire City composed of freshwater. The frog may be there.

He began trekking his way south and east towards Sapphire City. Being a robot, he should get there and back to main base without losing too much power.

- - - - -

While Sonic was looking for Amy in Twinkle Park, Amy had a bit of an adventure of her own. She went into the Mirror Maze and tried to navigate her way through, but as I said, it was a Mirror Maze, and a mirror can make passages look false.

"Oh, Birdy. I'm afraid we're lost!"

Amy bit her lip when she heard a low beep, followed by a mechanical whir of machines.

Amy gasped in sheer terror. "It's that bad robot! It must've gotten away from Sonic. Oh, I wish he would just leave us alone!"

Suddenly, she heard a crash of glass not too far away, and Amy spun around. Not giving it a second thought, she just ran away down the nearest passage, not even thinking if it was the right way out. If it got her away from Zero, it would do the trick.

This little game of hide-and-seek continued for fifteen terrible minutes, and Amy only got out by pure luck, leaving Zero to crash about in the maze.

"Whew, that was close. Let's get out of this park. I've had enough for one night."

Amy paused to find a map to lead her out, and began thinking, "I wonder where Sonic went…poor Sonic. He must've gotten lost too, but he can take care of himself, just as he took care of me." Amy sighed adoringly, but did not forget her intention on getting out of Twinkle Park before Zero realized that they were both gone.

Amy went down the elevator, walked out into the night atmosphere of Station Square, and began to walk home, tired and actually hungry.

"I should've gotten some popcorn or something while back there. It was fun with Sonic, but, oh, that bad robot! He had to ruin everything. I wonder why he was after you, Birdy. What would that Dr. Robotnik want with a harmless bird like you?"

Amy let go of the bird and let him fly along side her.

"That doctor is so wicked; I'm glad that he can be stopped by Sonic."

Amy walked on home, lost in her own thoughts about robots, Robotnik and Sonic…

Especially Sonic.

- - - - -

Knuckles walked about in the caverns of the pyramid for what felt like hours. He had a feeling that it was now way after dusk back outside, and thought that he really needed to get out of here.

He came to a room that had two shallow pools on either side. The room was decorated with precious stones and colored rocks. On the opposite side of the room was a platform, but nothing seemed to be rather interesting about it for it was made of stone and was featureless. It was what Knuckles found on the wall behind it that caught his eye.

A mosaic made with various precious stones that made a picture.

"A mural?" Knuckles thought as he wondered closer.

The mural showed a monstrous beast emerging out of water, and it seemed to be destroying several buildings in its path.

"What happened here?"

No sooner when Knuckles said this, the fairy came back and circled around Knuckles, blinding him momentarily.

Knuckles recoiled at the sudden brightness, and closed his eyes tightly. After opening them again, he found that he was outside, and instead of a jungle, but on a mountain plain. He stood on a path that lead over a stone bridge and over to a rise ahead. It had a pyramid with a canopy on it.

Out of curiosity, he went forward and found that this place gave him a strange sense of familiarity, just like the old city he saw with the stone buildings.

When he got to the foot of the stairs leading up, he saw that seven pillars circled the base. On the top of each pillar sat a softball sized jewel.

"Hey! This looks like Marble Gardens, and it looks like I'm in a time where the Master Emerald and was not yet moved underground, and the Supers weren't crafted yet! I'm in my ancestor's past!"

He ran up to the top of the pedestal to see if he was right. Indeed, the Master Emerald sat there, protected under the canopy. It was not alone however for a young Echidna-girl stood in front of it. It was the same one that Knuckles saw in his last "dream."

Tikal.

She seemed to be speaking earnestly with the Master Emerald.

"I beg of you, hear me now!" Tikal said. "My father is coming to this Island very soon, and I am afraid, for I know what he's coming for. I've come to plead with you to take everyone and your sister Emeralds with you! Oh, please! I don't want father getting them, for he'll kill anyone who will resist his rule! Please, take everyone here away!"

Knuckles stood confused. Why was she speaking to the Master this way? All the time, he spoke to the Emerald all the time, but not like it was living and breathing, but like it was a computer; giving it basic commands and such.

Maybe Tikal didn't understand how the Emerald responds, or maybe…could the Emerald respond just like a normal living being?

Knuckles watched Tikal to see if anything would happen. There was a small bubbling sound from a moat that Knuckles didn't notice at first, but he saw that a ripple came from a sub-moat halfway up the pyramid, but he saw nothing disturb the water.

Tikal spoke again, "Are you saying you can't leave this place?"

The Emerald made no response that Knuckles noticed.

"But my father will surely kill everyone here and take you and your sisters along as plunder!"

The bubbling sound made itself present again, and did nothing else.

"I understand; I'll talk to my father again." Tikal listened around. "There must be a better way to do this, but I can't see it."

She turned to leave, but something touched her heel, and Knuckles heard a bunch of high-pitched sounds from below. Naturally they both looked down.

Knuckles saw little blue creatures that looked like a little human baby, but had an onion-shaped head and large, dark eyes.

Chao! Knuckles knew about these special creatures, but never saw one at first glance before. Tikal seemed to be familiar with them, and they familiar to her.

"Don't worry, little ones. I will die before I let anything happen to you." Tikal ran down the steps and past Knuckles. "I must do something quickly!"

Knuckles stared after Tikal, and back at the chao, then at the Emerald. What was going on…or what had happened?"

Suddenly, it seemed that somebody had thrown a switch, for Knuckles suddenly found himself in front of a ruined pyramid under a starry sky.

Knuckles at first didn't notice, for the vision had boggled his mind for the moment, then his eyes opened inside. "What? I'm back in front of the altar!"

Knuckles stood motionless at the bottom. "What does all this mean?" Then a light clicked on inside. "The shards! I must restore the Master Emerald!"

Knuckles nearly tripped as he jogged up the steps three at a time, and stopped at the half-complete Emerald. Knuckles yanked his backpack off his back, hurting his arms at the same time from the hurry, and pulled out the twenty-plus shards.

He threw them on top the Emerald and they immediately fused together, omitting a great greenish light. When the light faded, the Emerald looked complete. Knuckles thought it was restored and was about to whoop in triumph when he noticed a notch missing on one of the sides of the top.

"It's still incomplete!" Knuckles inspected the notch. "It looks like at least two shards are still remaining. Dang it, where could they be?"

Something rustled in the bushes, causing Knuckles to get on guard. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Boss, is that you?" said a deep voice with an accent.

"Vector? You're on guard duty tonight?"

A tall crocodile wearing a belt and walkman complete with headphones stepped onto the altar. "Yep, I saw the flash and came up here to investigate. Espio should be nearby somewhere, like…"

"Right behind you."

Vector cried out and spun around, just as a shape shaded into view: a hot pink chameleon wearing purple, metal-tipped boots.

"Espio! What are you trying to give me, a heart attack?"

"You should be paying more attention." He turned to Knuckles. "I see you found all the missing pieces."

"No," Knuckles indicated the notch. "There's still at least two or three left."

"That's a bummer," commented Vector dryly.

"Don't I know it?" Knuckles put a palm on the side of the Emerald. "I need to find out where they are…wherever they are."

Suddenly, the light changed inside the Emerald. Several parts brightened, while some darkened. It seemed to make a shape. All three looked in closely.

"What is that?" said Vector, confused.

"How should I know?" replied Espio. "All I know is that it can fly. Look at those 'rocket-like' things in the back."

Knuckles' voice dropped to a dangerous low. "Eggman…"

Vector and Espio looked at him. "Who?"

"Dr. Robotnik. That's his newest ship, the Egg Battleship or something like that."

"Hey, wasn't it that big ship that flew over the mainland earlier this afternoon?" Espio said quietly.

Vector looked closely again at the shape inside the Emerald. "Now that I think about it, it does look like that ship. Why is this hunk of rock showing us that?"

Knuckles thought a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "That must be where the last missing shards are. Of course the Master Emerald would know where its own pieces are…but I don't know where that ship is."

"Maybe we can wait till it flies over again," Espio said.

"And what then, throw Knuckles at it? I don't think so, Esp," Vector replied sarcastically.

"I guess I'll have to find it somewhere in the jungles. It's bound to be in there somewhere."

Espio seemed to remember something. "Oh, Knux, the gang and I got these to go with those claw things of yours."

Espio took something out and put it in Knuckles hands.

"What are these?" Knuckles asked.

"They're fighting gloves, made of real leather. We got yellow ones with green cuffs that match your shoes. It's better to see them in better light."

Knuckles felt them over. These feel like they could do damage when they were used properly. He also felt metal knuclaws inside. Knuckles took one of his own gloves experimentally and put on the leather glove.

Silently cursing himself for trying to put on a glove that belongs on the other hand, he put it on the right hand. This glove felt cool and comfortable.

After putting on the other, he said, "Hey, any of you want to volunteer for a test of these gloves?"

"No thanks, I think I'll pass." Espio waved his arms in declination.

"Ditto," Vector said.

"Well, if you guys don't mind, I'm going to hit the sack."

"Oh, we don't mind. We were planning to stay up all night anyway," Espio sarcastically remarked.

"Ooh, do I hear a hint of sarcasm in your voice, Espio?" Knuckles replied.

"Who, me?" Espio said in mock innocence.

Knuckles chuckled and took off down the steps for a good nights sleep.

Chapter 13: Highway Run  
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Sonic stood outside of the Twinkle Park lift, not knowing if losing Amy was a good thing or bad.

"Dang you, Amy. Whenever we meet, you bring trouble! Where the heck did you go?"

Sonic began walking around in the night lights of Station Square, wishing he knew what to do. He had lost four Chaos Emeralds, Tails, Amy and now part of his pride.

"Gee, I wish I could find something for a change."

It was during this self-frustration period when Sonic's foot caught on something.

"Huh? What was that?"

Sonic bent down to pick up whatever his foot found. He found it, picked it up and looked it over. It was a plastic card that bore several numbers, a portrait of a man and some general information of the pictured man.

"Looks like a driver's license, kind of, but it doesn't really either."

Sonic held the care up to the moonlight. It helped some, but less then Sonic had hoped. He had to squint to bring the details into clarity with him.

"Hmm, it looks more like an ID, like a card for a businessman, or a worker for a big cooperation. Hey, here's the workplace! "Speed Highway Transportation Department (SHTD)."

Sonic held the card with a finger and a thumb and just stared at it, thinking.

"Now why would someone lose something like this? Must be incredibly clumsy."

He looked up and saw the warehouse beside Twinkle Park. He walked down the sidewalk to the large, sliding door. He didn't stay there long for he spotted something that looked like a credit card machine glued to the wall beside the door.

Sonic looked at his newfound card, then back at the card machine. "Hmm, might as well. What could happen?"

Without hesitating, Sonic walked up to the machine, and slid the card through the slot. To his general surprise, the machine recognized the ID and permitted the entrance for Sonic. The doors slid open upward, making a slight grinding noise.

"Cool!" Sonic thought out loud, and immediately stepped in. Inside it was rather simple: nothing rather interesting in it at all. The only thing different between the metal floors and walls was something that looked like a metal plate with lots of glowing buttons on it.

"Looks like controls in an elevator."

Being the kind of creature who likes who experiment and quick to give in to curiosity's slightest push, he pressed the "R" button, thinking that meant roof.

The doors that opened to let Sonic in closed behind him.

"Oh, great; you've done it now, hedgehog. Now I'm stuck here."

Suddenly, the whole place seemed to move upwards. Sonic felt the sensation of being lifted as in an elevator. It must've been a car lift, thought Sonic, as he stood in one place, trying to keep his balance on the floor.

After a few tedious minutes, the movement finally stopped, and the doors opened again.

"The heck?" Sonic stepped out, and found himself on a wide stretch of pavement, which then lead to a road that twisted off into the night.

"Cool, looks like a great racetrack!"

Sonic, without any hesitation, took off into the darkness of Station Square. Oh, the hedgehog was never so full of glee; this highway was ideal to his speed to his eyes.

After several minutes of break-neck speed, Sonic loving every moment of it, he was distracted by sirens behind him. Naturally, Sonic looked over his shoulder.

Several police cruisers were chasing him down, like a group of alley cats after a single mouse. The sirens were "deafingly" loud, and the patrol lights cast alternating blue and red glows on the pavement.

"Why the heck are they following me? I'm only going seventy and below the limit. I'm not that stupid."

If Sonic knew a bit more about traffic rules, he would've known that certain roads do not permit any traffic besides vehicles that can exceed forty miles per hour. That he could do, but as I said: vehicles are only allowed.

"Well, since they won't let up, I guess I won't either."

Sonic took off down loops of the Speed Highway, but the police, specially trained to chase down speeders, kept on after him, like a pack of hounds after a fox, hoping to get the fox up the proverbial tree.

"Dang, these goons don't give up!" Sonic griped. "I gotta shake them some how."

Several meters ahead was a building-top, made of concrete so as to support the enormous weight of several vehicles. This place also had an observation deck so anyone at any time could stop on top of the rooftop and adore the view. For the exceptional person, seeking a thrill, there were rocket boosters with handles that a person would grab on to and take off into the skies, wearing protective gear just in case something went awry.

Sonic was fast approaching this deck, and saw the rocket boosters.

"Aha! A ticket out of here!"

Sonic skidded to a halt with a screech like tires, and grabbed onto the holding bars.

"Oh crap! How do I turn it on?"

Sonic's hand was groping for a button or anything that would turn it on. The police were closing in, and Sonic was beginning to grow desperate.

"C'mon, baby! Don't betray me now!"

Sonic in all desperation just yanked down on the handles like one would with reins on a horse to make it run faster. That must've started it up for one moment Sonic was standing on the deck; the next, flying through the night, momentum and inertia nearly tearing him apart.

The speed was so intense so that Sonic's eyes were closed because of the wind. The rocket booster was narrowly missing the tall buildings, so narrowly that Sonic was tempted to let go so as not to smack into the alabaster-colored buildings. Sonic could just barely steer it so to be more controllable.

After several seconds of flying, Sonic took a wrong turn with the rocket and crashed into a building where the top story was only composed of glass panes. The crash made Sonic lose grip and roll to a stop in the building. The rocket flew uncontrolled until it ran into a stone building and exploded. The building was unscathed next to the black-covering of ash.

Sonic lay there for a few seconds, feeling like he relived Windy Valley and very surprised that he survived that crazy ride. Sonic stood up, legs shaking from shock and looked around.

"What the heck is this place?" Sonic walked around gingerly, avoiding large chunks of glass here and there. "It looks like an observation tower."

The top of this building was in fact entirely composed of glass panes, which had sections that jetted out so one could see down without even trying.

"This must be where those news guys get these traffic report stuff that's on the news each morning." Sonic looked down into the darkness below, stepping out just a little bit onto the glass pane.

The hedgehog fell through as if he was just standing on air, and plummeted like a rock. Sonic never fell such a distance before, and panic smacked into his heart like stone. He was falling in the position of a typical skydiver. He didn't know how close to the building he really was for his mind was obviously downward. It was when his feet struck the wall when he got an idea.

Hey, I may be falling, but maybe this building wall is my key to land safe, Sonic thought.

When his feet struck the building again, Sonic took to making his legs run against the building. His arms were outstretched to keep himself planted on the building, and his feet were pretty much running on their own.

Now that Sonic had finally gotten an idea to save himself, he found out that this building running was really fun!

The fall, or run if you asked him, was short, for he crashed through several skylights and crashed into the main lobby of the building below.

He lay on the floor, bracing himself for the inevitable shower of glass that did come a few seconds later. Luckily for him, he was not injured from either the fall or the glass. He got up and looked around. An intern working late saw Sonic and the glass and nearly freaked.

Sonic explained that he tried out those "dumb rockets" on Speed Highway and crashed into this building, apologized and then asked to be let out.

In time, he got out and got a taxi back to the Sunset Resort, a hair shaken still from his near experience with death. He immediately checked in and turned on the TV just for heck and saw that a news helicopter had seen Sonic's escape from the Speed Highway Patrol and caught it on footage, straight from the rocket escapade and even part of the fall.

Sonic chuckled as he saw himself relive the night adventure through the miracles of multimedia. What he found hilarious was that they thought he died when he crashed into the skylights.

After a few minutes of that, he turned off the TV and turned in.

- - - - -

"Froggy! Where are you?"

Big the Cat was standing on the beaches near Sunset Resort after he saw Froggy hop this direction. He was very tired, very hungry and very sad. He had tried for two straight days to catch Froggy so he could help him fight whatever was ailing him.

"Oh, Froggy, can you please come back and we can have dinner?"

Big sat on the beach, ears drooping in depression but pulled out his rod. "Maybe if Froggy hopped by again and saw me fishing, he'll come back and we'll have food!"

Big decided to give his plan a try, and began fishing. He fished for hours, bringing in fish that could last him a whole week. He decided then to cook one and carry the rest in his fish basket.

He got a fire going, and put a large tuna on a spit. He kept looking around expecting to see a certain frog hop his way.

He kept looking even after he cooked the fish and then ate it, bite after bite. He sat there even when the sun began to rise. It was then he heard a familiar croak. Climbing to his feet as quickly as one would expect a tall, fat cat could go; he looked around and saw a large frog hopping into pool of water on the beach.

"Froggy! I've found you and now can take you home with me, and we'll have a big fish to have to celebrate!"

Big began to fish for Froggy in the pool, nearly ecstatic at finding his friend again.

Chapter 14: Lost and Found  
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Tails was staring awake from sleeping. He had spent most of the night installing his new-found Emerald into his Emerald-energy converter and back into the engine compartment. He fell asleep right at the nose of the plane with exhaustion.

"Oh, did I fall asleep?" Tails groaned. "Oh, I'm so sore!"

He got up, took a shower to wake himself up fully and then made some coffee, not too strong though.

Then, he opened the hangar doors. "The time has come for the Tornado to take the skies again. Now that I ironed out the problems, this should run more smoothly."

Tails hopped into the cockpit, and then activated the plane. He smiled as all the systems came online smoothly. He had spent many a week replacing the old components of the biplane with new computerized systems that could rival a space fighter.

"All systems online and running smoothly. Tornado 2, ready for takeoff!" Tails took two steering sticks and pushed them forward, which made the plane to move steadily forward. Then, Tails pressed a large button; the plane accelerated and then flew off into the sky.

"I hope I can find Sonic, then we'll go after the Egg Carrier!"

Tails turned about and towards Sapphire City.

- - - - -

Sonic woke early, and was not happy to find that Tails was still missing. He began to search Station Square up and down, but came up fruitless. One of the many places he looked was the same gift shop he and Tails were in two days ago.

He stood there waiting a good long time, just in case Tails ended up in Mystic Ruins and would take the train back. While he waited, he checked out the souvenir shop again. One thing that caught his interest was a strange, azure bracelet.

"Cool," Sonic thought. "50 dollars? What's so special about it to cost so much?"

This bracelet was indeed worth its price if Sonic knew what its purpose was; it was called a Crystal Ring, a phosphorescent bracelet which was made of bluish phosphorus crystals. Sonic had to ask a clerk about it, and he explained its significance. That impressed Sonic for any typical teen of our race would be attracted to lights, fire or anything the like so much; he didn't delay buying it.

He slipped on the bracelet, and it fit snugly over the cuff. "Now that I look at it, it actually looks pretty cool."

He kept going outside every time a train pulled in, only to be more discouraged when his friend did not arrive. What was even stranger was that Amy wasn't even after him too.

"Dang, both of them are gone! Not that I would love to see Amy, but…oh, fark it all! She's always getting into trouble!"

Sonic walked heavily out of the station and back toward the hotel, intending to go to the casino side of the square, thinking that Tails may go there if he was still in Sapphire City.

This losing business was getting tiresome very quickly.

- - - - -

Amy took Birdy to the mall and browsed there for a while, looking at an engagement ring display more so. She was well refreshed considering the rough night she had with a certain robot.

"Oh, I wonder where Sonic is now," Amy said dreamily, outside the mall doors. "Birdy, have you seen the beaches?"

The bird makes a chirp that to Amy's astonishment sounded a lot like "no."

"Birdy, you can talk?"

The bird chirped, but Amy couldn't catch what he said. "Poor bird," Amy said with compassion. "You have problems speaking. Maybe I can help you?"

Birdy stared up at Amy, and if it was looking hopeful.

"Sure, I can help you. But where do I start?"

They walked along on the beach, Amy trying to teach Birdy simple words like dog, cat or even yes.

If Amy knew more about Möbian history, she would've known about Flicky Island, which was an island where from strange crafts appeared over one thousand years ago from another dimension. The residents are birds with very high IQs, speaking abilities and even had some strange touch with the Chaos Emeralds, known as Flickies. Robotnik prized these birds for excellent badnik pilots, and nearly wiped out the population completely with his sinister plan, but Sonic beat him again and Metal-Sonic was thrashed.

Birdy was indeed a Flicky.

While Amy was teaching the Flicky how to speak the word bat, the unthinkable happened. A huge clang of metal resounded behind Amy, and Birdy squeaked in surprise. Amy looked back, and screamed, "It's you!"

Amy grabbed Birdy and began to run, but Zero was too fast; his arms extended forward and snatched up the poor girl. Amy naturally screamed in terror as Zero held her up like a trophy. Birdy was also hopelessly trapped in Zero's clutches.

"Let me go! I demand you, let us go!" Amy protested.

Zero paid no mind and rumbled towards the train station. He stooped through the door, up the staircases and through the Plexiglas tunnel of the tracks. Amy didn't know why he shouted his name then for she didn't see him, but she was glad she did.

"Help, SONIC!"

Down below, a certain blue hedgehog was near the casino and heard his name shouted. Naturally turning his head toward the sound, he saw Amy and Zero in the tunnel.

"Amy! Oh, crap! She's in danger!" Sonic took off up a nearby staircase into the train station and not giving it a second thought, took off down the tunnel after Zero, dividing his attention between his forward motion and the spaces between the railroad logs.

"Oh, I hope I catch him without twisting my ankle."

- - - - -

Back on the beaches of Emerald Coast, a red robot was stalking on the beach on a mission. Find a frog within four hours.

"Master will not be happy if I do not find that frog before the commissioned time."

If he was capable of emotions, he would show worry. The probability of finding the frog within the large area was 20 to 1, and that was without considering the fact that one of the other robots would've found it before he did. He must find that frog or suffer a worse fate then his past friend, Beta.

It was then when he saw something very strange: a large, fat cat was sitting cross-legged near a small pool, and on closer examination, Gamma saw that he was fishing.

"His actions are illogical; no fish large enough to consume for a large feline such as himself."

Suddenly, the cat yanked back on his pole, and shouted in glee. "Something's biting!" He reeled in the string with such speed that the pole was bending severely. Then, the catch flew out of the water when the cat yanked the pole again. Gamma, just for his personal curiosity, scanned what this cat caught. It was not a fish as he originally "thought," but a frog, with a pointed tail!

Glory be! That's the frog that his master needs! The cat seemed to be happy to see it too, for he was hugging it, speaking to it.

Gamma didn't hesitate, not taught how to properly take something inconspicuously, just walked up to the cat, took the frog out of his hands and began to walk away.

"Froggy?" Big said, noticing that Froggy was gone once again. "Where are you?" He looked up and saw a large red robot carrying away the frog. "Hey! What are you doing with my little buddy! Please, give him back! He's sick! I'm begging ya, please!"

Big chased after Gamma, reasoning with him to give up his friend.

- - - - -

Several hours later, about 1 PM…

Knuckles was sitting down on some of the stone slabs, trying to cook up a plan to get on the Egg Carrier to get the last shards.

"I don't even know where that ship is, let alone how to get on there." Knuckles cried out, "Oh, why does this have to happen to me?"

This statement triggered a look back on his life. His father disappeared mysteriously when Knuckles was only five, bringing a quick maturity to the poor Echidna. He never believed that his father, Locke, died as most people thought, and actually even tried to look for him, but turned up empty.

He had many problems in his life after he became Guardian, for when he was only eleven, Dr. Robotnik crashed the Death Egg in the sands of the Topaz Desert where Knuckles found him needing help. Through lies and deceit, Robotnik tricked Knuckles into thinking he was good, and when Sonic and Tails came to the island to look for Robotnik, Knuckles was told that they were after the Emeralds.

Knuckles had tried every effort to get both Sonic and Tails off the island, but that got Sonic and Tails to stay even more. In a series of unfortunate events, Sonic and Tails had stumbled through the perilous labyrinths of Lava Reef and even gotten into the Hidden Palace by chance. That's where they found Knuckles and even fought, then, Robotnik showed his true colors and managed to take the Master Emerald under Knuckles' nose. Sonic took after Robotnik at once, but was unable to catch him at first, until Knuckles offered his assistance. He made Sonic go Hyper when Knuckles commanded the Supers to transfer some of their energy to Sonic's body.

That led him into a chain of memories concerning the adventures with Sonic on Flicky Island, Little Planet and others.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by loud footprints, not from an animal but from the sound it was heavy, and made of metal.

The source became visible in the distance: a large red robot was stalking upwards toward Knuckles' general location. Knuckles ran behind a bush to spy on the visitor.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's one of Eggman's robots! And it's…carrying a frog?"

Knuckles was a hair puzzled about why the robot was carrying such an odd thing, but suddenly had an idea.

"Hey…no doubt this robot will head back towards Eggman's base…and maybe even to that ship!" Knuckles snuck from behind the bush, not to attract the attention of the robot.

From where he watched, he saw that the robot entered a tunnel that led through the cliff face. Mixed with his mission and personal curiosity, he ventured towards the mouth of the tunnel and peered in. He could hear the loud footsteps inside, and not giving it a second thought, stepped into the darkness of the tunnel, following only by hearing, not by sight.

He didn't know that someone else had his reasons for following the robot; a large cat was far behind, but followed the tracks left by the robot, but Knuckles was not bothered by either the robot or the cat, and was left undetected.

He walked through utter darkness, feeling his way with his feet for litter, holes or anything that could cause problems, but after a good hour, the robot came to the other end of the tunnel which led to a ledge that jetted over the jungle. The robot was obviously not deterred by the long drop ahead, for suddenly propeller blades unfolded from his "waist" and spun. He tucked in his feet and hovered away.

Knuckles peered towards where the robot was hovering to, and saw that a city rose from the jungle valley in the distance.

"What the heck is that city doing in this god-forsaken jungle? Or…is it a city?"

Knuckles leapt off the ledge into a glide at a safe-distance behind the robot, which was beginning to land near a bridge that spanned over the valley and onto the jungle.

He past a high stone-pillar that stood boldly and proudly over the jungle and Knuckles wasn't sure of it, but he was certain that he had seen this pillar before, for it came from on top of a pyramid.

But no time for sudden déjà vu, for he needed to get to the Egg Carrier and get the last shards of the Master Emerald.

He dropped through the jungle canopy and found the robot walking towards a large door that was at the end of the large bridge.

"Aha! I've found the way into the base; time to make a house call."

Knuckles waited a while and then walked bravely into the bridge, unknowingly followed by a purple cat.

- - - - -

One hour later…

Sonic arrived at the Mystic Ruins station, smarting from a few stumbles on the tracks, but looking quickly for a certain robot carrying a pink hedgehog.

He didn't see them, but he sure heard someone shouting in protest.

"Let me go, you hunk of junk, I mean it!"

Sonic jogged towards the edge of the platform, limping a bit from a turned ankle, and stared down and found them: Zero carrying Amy and Birdy high in the air, trekking towards a tunnel that Sonic and Tails had used to arrive back from Windy Valley.

He glared down at Zero. "Listen here, bolt brain! Hand over Amy and the bird to me, or I'll turn you to scrap and spit on the remains!"

Zero turned at the word bolt, and glared at Sonic. Amy wailed as she looked at Sonic with pleading terror. Sonic leapt from the platform and landed in front of Zero on his feet, trying to hide the shock of pain of landing poorly on a turned ankle, but stared defiantly into Zero's eyes, taking a defensive stance.

"You heard me, you overgrown trashcan. Give up Amy!"

Suddenly, the whole area was submerged into sub-darkness.

"What the--! What's going on?"

Sonic and even Amy was confused about the sudden darkness and naturally looked around in bewilderment. Sonic didn't hear it at first, but he thought he heard engine thrusters.

Suddenly, it dawned on him! The last time something like this happened, the Egg Carrier had just been revealed.

Before he was even able to get ready to strike at Zero, a green beam switched on and enveloped the robot, and much to Sonic's horror, took Zero and Amy up into the craft above.

"Stop!" Sonic yelled and jumped into the beam in vain.

The two were just about into the craft, and Sonic only heard Amy yell one more thing.

"Sonic, please help me!"

The beam switched off and the Carrier lifted up higher and flew over the mountain.

He cursed aloud. "I can't believe I lost her again!"

Sonic ran towards the tunnel above the rock pile and climbed inside, bolting deeper inside.

If he had stayed, he would've noticed a small blue biplane flying after the Egg Carrier.

Chapter 15: Reunited…Once Again  
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Sonic ran through the general darkness of the tunnels, coming to the fork where one path led to the ice cave.

"I guess it's time to find out where this other one goes. There's no time to lose!"

Sonic wasn't thinking about any danger about exploring a strange cave, for he needed to find a way to get to the Egg Carrier.

In not too long of a time, he breached into daylight, but was so concentrated by the smoke trail left behind that he didn't notice a strange glow from his left side from something he had seen before.

He found a tunnel that led to places I have discussed before, and even past a sign marked "Danger." Sonic was met with smells of sulfur and rotten eggs.

"P.U.! What the hey is this place?"

If Sonic knew anything about those smells, he would've known that normally they came from only one place: an active volcano or volcanic lands.

When Sonic trudged on through the wasteland, he felt that the ground had a peculiar sound to it when stepped on, and even worse was that the feeling of unsteadiness was ever-present.

"Hey, whatever this place is, it's not friendly."

Suddenly, the ground about a stones-throw away suddenly collapsed and a hot vent of steam poured out with a loud hiss! Needless to say, Sonic was startled by the vent eruption.

He picked up the pace, telling himself that he was doing that so he could get a better chance to catch the Egg Carrier, but he was really afraid to be toast.

His run couldn't have been more ill-timed; Red Mountain had been boiling up for several years and was ready to blow any day now. Ground swellings were everywhere, making Sonic's run difficult, for they tend to be high, and very unstable.

Sonic coughed through a cloud of ash that had suddenly erupted out of a large crack in the ground. "Oh, I need to get out of here!"

Sonic's fur went to blue to a dirty navy due to constant exposure to ash and steam.

Then, Sonic made a turn and found that a large cliff face blocked his path.

"Dang! I hate this place!" Sonic threw up his arms in frustration.

He quickly scanned the wall for any way to get around or to get through. The only way that looked feasible was a small crawl-in hole. At this point, Sonic was ready to try anything.

As it turned out, it was a really bad choice. That little hole led into a large lava pit, rocky bridges and many tunnels provided a dangerous labyrinth.

"Well, that was good, hedgehog. Now I'm stuck in a Lava Reef wanna-be!"

Sonic began jogging his way over several bridges, always distracted by the large lava pool not too far below.

"Boy, this reminds me of a place no one wants to go."

Suddenly, the very bridge he stood on collapsed beneath his feet; Sonic was lucky to land on a floating stone from the bridge in the lava.

"Whew! I almost was done for…well done that is." Sonic chuckled half-heartedly.

Sonic floated along on the stone as the lava flow carried it through twists and turns in the channel. Sonic swallowed a gulp that felt like a boulder.

"I hope this doesn't go into a lava fall…"

Suddenly, Sonic noticed that the surrounding magma was bubbling, and later he felt small tremors.

"Uh oh…that can't be good…"

Suddenly, the underground pressure became too great; the lava shot up with a bang! Sonic held onto his rocky raft as the lava brought it with the eruption. Sonic didn't admit it, but he was screaming in a mixture of terror and excitement.

As they kept going upward, Sonic looked up and noticed that he was heading through a vertical shaft.

"Oh, crap! I'm in the actual cone!"

There was nothing to be done about that, for sooner then he realized Sonic flew out of the top cone of Red Mountain. The lava ejected miles into the atmosphere in one spectacular eruption, rather weak compared to eruptions like Krakatoa or Tambora back in our world, but still very impressive.

Many would not survive such a grand display of Mother Nature's fury, but Sonic's task was not done, and he lay on a ledge, jetting over the sea and sheltered from the fury of Red Mountain. Sonic hacked and breathed the nice fresh air.

"Oh, I thought I'd never get out of there! I'll never hate the cold again!"

Sonic got up, feeling sore on every place of his body from his chase with Zero and his rough run and ride in Red Mountain. Soon, he saw the Egg Carrier, slowly advancing away from Sonic's position.

"Oh, shoot! I'm too late! Now what?"

If Sonic wasn't so concentrated on the Egg Carrier in front of him, he would've heard another sound besides the thrusters of the Carrier: a sound of an engine rotor of a plane.

Even though he didn't hear it at first, his ears began to catch it. Naturally he looked around for the source, and he didn't have to wait long, for a blue biplane flew into view. So large and so beautiful, that it would put any plane its size to shame. The pilot wave to him, and Sonic got a small eye-shot of it.

"Wha--Tails? Is that you?" Sonic called out.

Sonic could barely hear the response. "Hi, Sonic! I'm glad I found you!"

Sonic laughed in joy at finding his friend at last. "Way to go, bro! Love the plane!"

Tails brought the blue biplane close enough so Sonic could jump on, which he did so.

Sonic felt the blue metal and laughed. "Fantastic, Tails! How did you make such a thing?"

"It's the same as the old Tornado," Tails commented.

"But that one was red! This is blue!"

"Don't you remember back in the garage? The plane was half-painted blue?"

Sonic slapped his forehead in realization. "Oh, yeah! I forgot!"

Tails piloted the plane, turning it towards the Egg Carrier. "Ready to go, Sonic?"

Sonic smiled in anticipation. "Let's do some damage, kiddo."

Tails gave a thumbs-up. "You got it, skipper!"

Tails pulled a lever, and the plane accelerated towards the Egg Carrier, and both were heading into a gathering storm.

End of Part 1


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

Chapter 16: The Tale of Amy and Gamma  
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"My frog's the right one!"

"Your eye-equivalents have color problems! Mine is right, you rust bucket!

"You all need reprogramming; my frog matches the hologram!"

Gamma was late getting in the room, but not late by the rendezvous time. He stood on the very right if you were standing in front of them, and held out his frog, patiently waiting for his master and patiently enduring the ongoing arguments of the other three.

He gazed at the frogs that the others held. If one wasn't careful, these frogs could've been mistaken for the one Master needed. They were all nearly identical in size, color and body shape. The only major difference was the tails, or lack there of. Most had a point from where the tail had disappeared.

Gamma thought that he had the right frog, but he began to doubt his own sensors. Could he have the wrong frog?

He had no time to think of that in depth, for the quarreling robots were silenced by a bark of command from higher up near the platform.

"Silence!"

All four lined up in numerical order, greatest to least, left to right. In other words, from the left stood, E-105 Zeta, E-104 Epsilon, E-103 Delta and finally E-102 Gamma.

The squat figure of Dr. Robotnik walked down the steps towards the four robots. Gamma, if he could would've held his breath in hope.

"Ah, dummies! Dummies! Dummies! Dummies!" shouted Robotnik in frustration. "None of you have the right frog! We need this one!" Robotnik once again displayed the hologram of the tailed frog again, and began pacing back and forth in front of the robots. "We need to get this one for it bears the tail of Chaos! And if my Chaos energy tracker is still accurate as always, it even has swallowed a Chaos Emerald!"

Gamma, if capable of facial descriptions, would've looked downcast. Even if he didn't have them, he did look disappointed.

Thus was his surprise when Robotnik suddenly cried out in surprise right in front of him.

The obese man was staring wide-eyed at Gamma's frog for a fraction of a second, and then smiled in deep pleasure. "Ah, there it is!" Robotnik pointed at the frog. "I'm so proud of you, Gamma. You've showed yourself to be better then any prototype so far!"

Gamma appeared to be so joyful that he practically shook with happiness.

Then he turned to the three remaining ones, and scowled at them. "All you worthless hunks of junk, be gone!"

The three robots were illuminated by green transporter beams and disappeared one by one. Delta managed one last look at Gamma before he beamed away. Gamma recorded that last look in his deepest memory bank, and didn't know why, but he felt sorry.

"Now, Gamma…"

Gamma turned to Robotnik.

"I have another task for you. Don't worry; this one's easy." Robotnik pointed to a trio of doors a ways behind Gamma. "Through that door behind you leads to a small cell block, and the farthest one holds a small girl and a bird. All I want is a bird, for even he, like this frog, is vital to my plans. Go!"

Robotnik stamped away, and Gamma stared blankly at the three doors. "Is this the one?"

Gamma tried the first door on the left, which unfortunately was not the right door. It led to a construction bay which was sickeningly familiar. Something was being worked on inside, and Gamma peered inside.

Gamma's feet clanged onto something at his feet, and he found pieces of robot arms and legs lying at his feet. He recognized them to be another E-series robot.

He again looked inside, and with a shudder discovered that his suspicions were justified.

"Beta?" Gamma said quietly, and looked up. The only thing that was even the same of the old Beta was parts of the head and the upper torso. The arms were completely torn off and was being replace with large forearms.

Another voice spoke, and this one was not nearly so pleasant.

"What are you doing here, E-102 Gamma, best of the E-series?" The voice sounded sarcastic and dripping venom.

"Is that you…" Gamma hesitated. "…Mecha?"

"Yes."

Gamma hesitated again, and just turned out of the room. He could imagine Metal-Sonic unpleasantly happy at his successful intimidation.

He realized that this was the wrong room, and decided to check his readings to find out which room it was he was assigned to go to.

The middle room lead to a maze of aquariums and incubators for organics, instead of robotics, called the Hot Shelter.

The door to the right lead to a circular room at first, but the next one had three cells.

"This is the room," Gamma droned, and stepped through the door.

- - - - -

Amy was huddling in the corner, turned away from the door and holding the bird in two hands, petting it to comfort it. Birdy was shaking like a leaf from the experience.

"There, there. Don't worry; I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

She would say variations of this over and over as the hours passed in her cell. She had quite an experience: Metal-Sonic came in once she was thrown in and tried to goad her to give up the bird by building up fear within Amy. It went like this:

Amy was facing forward in a sitting position at first, when the blue metallic hedgehog stomped into the room. Amy of course gasped in fright.

"Greeting, Amy Rose. We meet again…" Mecha purred.

"Go away, you bad robot!"

Mecha rolled his claws on the bars with intimidation towards Amy, and then entered a code into a nearby control pad, which opened the cell doors of Amy's cell. Amy's eyes grew in terror.

"If you knew what was good for you, you'd give up the bird."

Amy took the bird and hid it to her side. "Nope. I know you too well; you'd hurt him, you jerk!"

Metal-Sonic appeared to be seething, but tried to hide it. "You know that I could rip you to shreds on this spot, and it would give me much satisfaction, and I wouldn't even care."

That just intensified Amy's intention of protecting her friend. She answered bravely, "At least I would die doing what I think is right."

Metal-Sonic lost it; he grabbed Amy's arm and even attempted to snatch the bird from Amy, but she squealed loudly and kept Birdy from arms-length of Mecha.

Amy was desperate for any way to keep Birdy away, and thought the best way was a swift kick. She did such, hitting Metal-Sonic in the jet-intake.

Metal-Sonic recoiled and cursed Amy to her grandfather's grandfather, and stormed off after closing the cell doors.

"Consider your death delayed, girl, for I have something else to vent my anger on besides helpless little hedgehogs, but one day, I will return that blow and you will wish you never fell it!" He shouted to her again.

Amy congratulated herself for standing up to Mecha.

"I'm sure Sonic would've been proud of me for doing that."

It was two hours later when the next event happened: the door that separated the cells and the next room opened with a hydraulic hiss, which was followed by heavy, regular metallic steps.

"Oh, not Mecha again!" Amy stared at the cell entrance, ready to see the blue robot any time.

He never came, but a robot did come. It was a red, odd-looking robot, with a three-barrel gun for his right hand. It bore the number "102" on its side. It stared at Amy with his green, glowing eyes.

"What do you want?" Amy said, her grudge against robots rising to the surface.

"Hand over the bird," Gamma said casually.

Amy hid Birdy to her side. "Nope," she said in plain refusal.

Gamma hesitated to try another approach. "Will you please hand over the bird?"

Amy was inwardly confused at the strange politeness from a machine, but decided not to show it. "Not at all!"

"Why not?"

"None of your business why not!" Amy stood up defiantly. "You tell me why you want him, now!"

Gamma searched his memory banks for an explanation; he didn't remember Master Robotnik explain why he needed the bird. "Data unavailable."

"You don't even know?" Amy was a little shocked, but firmed up. "I bet you'll be mean to him; you're just a big bully!"

Amy walked up to the cell doors, and Gamma not knowing why stepped back.

"Why not just let us out?" Amy asked. "Can't you see how afraid this bird is, and how bad I feel for this bird?"

Gamma was utterly confused, for his mind was built on logic. "Does not compute! You have feelings for something not worth anything to you. Your actions are illogical!"

Amy began to understand. The robots that Robotnik makes are slaves with no will and were robbed of proper rights of life. Only Metal-Sonic was bad down to the core truly. This robot was trapped in a slavery of the mind.

"I feel sorry for you, because that bad man Dr. Robotnik neglected to give you feelings. That must be horrible."

Birdy began to squirm suddenly, for it sensed something within the robot. It struggled hard and flew out of Amy's grip.

"Birdy, come back!" Amy cried out.

Birdy flapped in front of Gamma's "face" and began chirping so rapidly that Amy couldn't tell if Bird was breathing in between each set of chirps. To Amy's surprise, Gamma nearly was in convulsions, barely standing on two feet.

Suddenly, Gamma turned to a switchboard and pressed several buttons. "Go, escape!"

The doors of the cell slid upwards, showing Amy to be very confused.

"Hurry, you must take the bird and escape. Within a few hours, we will land back at the Mystic Ruins base. You must escape into the jungles then."

Amy walked out cautiously. "You're letting us go?"

Birdy perched on Amy's shoulder, but Amy wanted to say one thing more.

"You really are a good person inside. I guess that means we can be friends now. I hope we'll see you again!"

Amy and Birdy ran or flew into the next room, leaving Gamma leaning against the walls with realization of what he done: he had disobeyed a direct order, and Master will punish him soon. He didn't even react to the yellow alert activation saying that another aircraft was sighted close to the ship.

He sat there for a long time, until a red light fluttered up to him.

Chapter 17: Game for Freedom  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic and Tails were flying off starboard of the Egg Carrier, closing in on a gathering storm. They met the same resistance like the last time they battled the Egg Carrier.

"Ha ha! So far, so good!" Tails laughed in defiance.

Sonic had no controls of the weapons this time, and was amazed how Tails was able to divide his attention between flying and locking the weapon systems on to the fighters and rocket launchers. He felt like a target unable to defend himself mostly.

"I hope you know what you're doing, kiddo."

"Just leave it to me, Sonic."

Sonic heard weapons rotating deep within the plane, and saw beams of lasers suddenly make sweeping moves against the hull, searing the surface.

"Are these the weapons that you said could take out a tank?" Sonic asked over the wind.

"Just one of them." Tails smiled.

Oh boy, Sonic thought.

Tails darted to and fro, shooting at the fighters, and knocking out missiles that shot after them. He began to fly in front of the Egg Carrier again, but darted again when the Egg Cannon had opened behind and fired again, missing this time.

"Whoa! I felt that one fly by," Sonic said, shivering at the tingling of the charged air.

Tails got an idea: maybe the way to get on the Egg Carrier safely was to take out the Cannon, but the massive beam must've been produced by something with a large lens. Tails went through his weapons arsenal mentally trying to find a weapon strong enough to crack that lens. Nothing was strong enough, unless he…

"Sonic, hold on!"

"Hold on? Why?"

Suddenly, a large two-mandible claw unfolded from a now-open slot on the side and picked up Sonic without giving him much warning. Sonic was about to protest, but noticed that several panels opened and parts folded up.

The propeller in front disappeared completely, and only the rotor stump remained, shining a little bit red and a little bit gold. The wings shifted from the typical biplane shape to a near-perpendicular "x." A large jet engine appeared on the very bottom of the ship, and the rear side rose up to compliment the increased weight behind.

A computer spoke inside the controls. "Battle mode initiated; all systems online."

"Tails! This is cool!" Sonic said, amazed.

"This is the Tornado X, or the Tornado 2 in battle mode."

"Does it freakin' matter?"

Tails piloted the Tornado X to go under the underbelly of the Carrier, and found it riddled with floating mines. Tails had to think quickly to either shoot down the mines or avoid them. Sonic wished that there was a rear-mounted gun so he could shoot those mines down.

More missiles were after them again, and Tails had to perform many evasive maneuvers to avoid being blown up. Sonic was gripping the body of the Tornado with his legs and hands as the Tornado was going to and fro.

Tails had moved to the back thrusters of the Egg Carrier, and turned his head to Sonic.

"Sonic, I have a plan to land on the Egg Carrier, but we got to take out that laser lens!"

"Shoot, kiddo."

"Exactly," Tails chuckled from the timing of the unintended pun. "Seriously, I'm going to fly under the underside and fly in close to the lens. And when I'm close enough, I'll blast it with some concussion missiles, and then keep repeating it until it's gone!"

Sonic hesitated, taking in the plan, and gave a thumbs up. "Let's go crack a window!"

The Tornado swooped down quickly underneath, and was met by several missiles firing. Tails rolled to and fro (like a certain move from an Arwing) to avoid being hit. Several claws appeared from the above panels and attempted to grab at the plane to tear it apart.

After the hectic moment underneath the Carrier, Tails turned about, and found that the Egg Cannon was not the only thing to deal with: six missile launchers sat around them in case of a direct attack to the Cannon. Tails locked his weapons onto them, but it was harder then he realized, for missiles fired and ran into Tails' fire. The lens cover slid open, and Tails let loose all the weapons, lasers, missiles and the like in desperation. The lens glowed blue, and Tails steered to the side to avoid it.

Sonic had one look at the lens before the cover closed again. "Looks like you left a mark on it, buddy. Two more rounds should crack it."

"Thanks, Sonic. Let's try again!"

Tails, instead of going back under the barrages underneath the Carrier, he just turned in front, and prepared to face the Cannon again.

"Get ready, Tails. We need to get this thing out of the way, or not at all!"

The lens slid open, and Tails sent a barrage of missiles into the lens before it shot again.

"Looks like there's a fire inside there, kiddo," Sonic said.

"Good, one more shot should do it." Tails checked his arsenal over the computer, and noticed that he only had three concussion missiles left. "I only have one shot at this, Sonic. I'm going to get us close."

Tails positioned the Tornado close to the lens cover. "It's now or never…"

The lens opened, and the lens glowed blue, sickly, but blue. Tails fired one, then another after that, but there was no need for the second. The first one breached the glass, and detonated deep within the laser system. Fire shot out so far out forward so that Tails had to swerve aside to avoid getting torched. The flames licked about the broken lens, and the fire shot out once more in one gigantic explosion; Sonic and Tails both felt the heat from a good distance away.

Sonic laughed triumphantly and awe. "Look at that fire go! We did it! C'mon Tails, let's land!"

Tails steered up away from the inferno inside, and Sonic looked down and watched the lens close for the last time, labouringly.

Tails was swelled up with pride with his plane and triumph by satisfying a small vengeance against the Egg Carrier and Eggman.

"There's a landing strip! Let's land there!" Sonic pointed to several strips of pavement that were in front of a green, cylindrical container that contained lots of machinery.

It was then that Tails had forgotten something for the battle mode. "Uh oh…"

Sonic's sharp ears caught the worry in Tails' voice. "What's the matter?"

There was no beating around the bush for Tails. "There's no landing gear for this mode, Sonic! I forgot to install it for this mode!"

Sonic stared at Tails in shock. "What?"

"I'll have to drag it!"

Tails let up on the speed and pulled up so as not to make the drag very rough.

The bottom tips of the wings scraped and caught on the rough pavement. Sonic was sent flying off the tail, and the plane skidded and slid until it lay backwards and pointed towards the side.

Tails hopped out of the plane, and called out for Sonic. "Sonic? Are you okay?"

Sonic was lying on his side a few meters away, but got up and shook his spines. "Yeah, I'm okay. That hurt a bit."

"Sorry."

"S'all right." Sonic looked around. "Geez, this thing's huge! I don't think even the Flying Fortress was this big! One could fit a baseball, football and a soccer game on here at the same time comfortably."

Tails, even though he had a great interest for a machine unique, knew that time is against them. "C'mon, Sonic, we have to find Eggman."

"You're right, kiddo. Let's go!"

Sonic leaped off the runways, followed by Tails, and onto the deck below, narrowly missing a monorail rail.

The both of them were very close to a ramp that led up to what looked like the bridge, when a menacing voice rang over the loudspeakers.

"Do you think that I do not see you boys trying to get to me? You obviously still need to see what power is contained in this invincible vessel. How 'bout a little…uh…sample?" The voice laughed.

Sonic grabbed Tails' hand, ready to dash out of the way of a large weapon or a trap. What did come was a low rumble, and the low creaking of metal echoed through the stormy sky.

Suddenly, the ramp ahead rose, and slid away from them. Sonic tried to get up the ramp, but now it was steeper and smooth so that no one could climb it.

The side panels that they thought to be armor plating but were actually two wings extended and folded so that they spread out like the wings of a vulture. The panels where the rear thrusters rested shifted downwards, making the wings vaguely like a capital "K" tipped ninety degrees to the right.

"Whoa!" Tails said astonished. "It changed shape! Sonic, did you see that?"

Sonic looked at Tails. "Yeah, Tails," he said hollowly.

The speaker, Robotnik, laughed in glee. "You look like you weren't expecting that! I've cut off your route to get to me! Ah, now the only way through is through the door in front of you. I don't think you can make it here though." Robotnik laughed again.

Sonic shook a defiant fist in the air. "Oh, yeah? We'll show you, Eggman! Just bring it on!"

Sonic ran to the door, followed by Tails. Hesitating for just a half-a-second, he opened the doors and walked in.

- - - - -

"Oh, great! Birdy, we're trapped!"

Amy and Birdy were at the opposite door in the circular room that Gamma was in earlier, but the door was now locked and required a certain code to open. In the middle of the room was a platform with eight, evenly-spaced holes around a smaller, center platform.

Suddenly, a menacing voice rang out over speakers that nearly scared Amy out of her skin.

"Do you think you can make it from here?"

"Robotnik!" Amy shouted.

"Yes, and now I have you trapped. And the only way out is to play my game."

"What game? I don't see one?"

"What else do you think that thing is in the center, girl?" he said a little angrily. "Play it, or never get out! Ha ha!"

Amy looked at and around the platform; she found a large, red-colored mallet with yellow. Nearby was a digital hologram of a sign reading:

"Hedgehog Hammer!  
Score:  
Blue Sonic: 100 pts.  
Yellow Sonic: 500 pts.  
Dr. Robotnik: -200 pts.

Current record  
Dr. Ivo Robotnik--3000 pts."

"I have to play a Whack-A-Bonk game to get out of here? That's just weird."

Amy stepped onto the center platform, and it must've started the game for a gear kicked on and a timer started ticking down to zero. Various heads of Sonic, Super Sonic and Eggman popped up and disappeared again.

Amy took the mallet and began whacking the positive scoring ones as fast as she could, but not fast enough. A lot of the time, the targets popped up and lowered again as soon as Amy saw them. After thirty seconds of play, the timer rang. The score was only 1200 pts.

Robotnik's voice came on again. "Is that all you got? I've expected more from you, being so passionate of that idiot hedgehog."

"His name is Sonic!" Amy shouted in rage, and slammed the hammer on the center platform. "This game is for Sonic."

The timer started again, and Amy whacked heads in a mad fury that was fueled by what Dr. Robotnik said. She was not paying attention to either the timer or the score number. She just whacked away at anything that moved. Birdy stood back on a control pad farther away, astonished by Amy's determination.

The timer rang, and Amy brushed the bangs of her hair out of her face, and looked at the scoreboard: 3400 pts.

"What? How could this happen?" Dr. Robotnik shouted in anger and disbelief.

The door on the far end slid open with a hydraulic hiss.

"Yes! C'mon, Birdy, let's get out of here!"

Amy ran out, thinking about leaving the hammer behind, but she looked at it, and gave it a good swing. It felt like it could be a good weapon for her. She was always defenseless, and it would be good if she could now. She exited the round room, and turned sharply right and into the door to the Hot Shelter.

- - - - -

Knuckles was on the rear deck and was the only one that was on the Egg Carrier that Robotnik did not know was on board, besides one other deep inside the ship. He was walking around on the deck, listening for the slightest hint of a shard ring. He could feel that they're here, but did not know where.

He stood glaring at the long space between the front and the back that was created when the ship transformed.

"Ah!" Knuckles pounded a fist in the palm of his other hand. "Why does his things change so much?"

He looked down and saw that the gap was an area empty with sliding doors on both sides. Carts were running back and forth carrying heaps of junks to the sliding doors, dumping the worthless cargo through the doors, and running back to get more.

"Looks like a waste unloading area." Knuckles stared down, and just for personal curiosity, went to find a way to go down. He found a ladder that led down into the area. About half-way down, Knuckles' head rang; not from any ailment, but from the signal from an Emerald Shard.

"Ah, I can feel it more now; it must be close now."

He climbed down into the jettison area, and began to search.

Chapter 18: Sky Deck  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic and Tails stood on a narrow walkway that spanned over the sky below. If anyone fell off, he or she would've been done for.

"Good grief! It's like walking on a tight rope!" Sonic exclaimed.

Tails suddenly shouted in fright. "SONIC! RUN!"

Sonic looked around in bewilderment at what danger was present, then he felt his wrist being tugged violently, for Tails was pulling him forward, eyes widened in fright like an animal.

Suddenly, a huge explosion rumbled through behind them and the very force of the sound threw them forwards and flat on their faces.

Sonic pushed himself up and looked behind him, and his eyes widened to nearly twice their normal size, for the bridge behind them was gone!

"What happened?" Sonic said.

"That's what I was trying to tell you! I saw a huge cannon aiming toward us…" his statement trailed off as he looked for the cannon again, which was readjusting and pointing towards them again. "…and it's going to shoot again!"

Sonic leaped up and grabbed Tails' wrist and took off down the narrow pathways. "Looks like we've overstayed our welcome."

To say that it was just running would be an untruth, for the Sky Deck was a labyrinth of paths, ladders and gaps with spinning pistons. Dozens of energy cannons dotted the underside of the Egg Carrier, causing both Sonic and Tails to be very alert at any movement of those cannons.

When they had reached sets of pistons, they jumped on them, gripping the sides with hands and feet, for the base of the pistons was as wide as a foot, not as in the unit of measurement, but as in the part of the body.

The middle of the Sky Deck was probably the most difficult for both Sonic and Tails for a cannon as large as a house was destroying the bridge behind them plank by plank.

"Gee, Eggman's not taking any chances, is he?" Sonic commented dryly.

"Sonic! Don't just stand there admiring the view! That cannon's got our number!"

No sooner then did Tails' words left his mouth, that another shot came straight towards them. Sonic grabbed Tails' wrist and took off down the narrow catwalks.

The area where they were at composed of a large central cannon surrounded by four pillars numbered 1-4 all connected by catwalks. After the fourth pillar was a catwalk that then turned sharply left then headed towards the cannon. A ladder led up from that small walkway and upwards into a cubby hole. A small inactive rocket launcher that pointed towards the cannon sat past the ladder.

"There's our ticket out of here, kiddo." Sonic pointed to the ladder.

"But what about that huge cannon? That thing will shoot us before we're halfway up!"

"Then let's use that launcher there."

"Do you know how to use it, Sonic?"

"No, but I think it's time to learn."

Sonic ran down the walkways toward the launcher, the cannon attempting every few seconds to blast them into oblivion, but Sonic was ahead of it. He got to the launcher, and found it loaded and ready to shoot. He found a control pad beside it, and he just pressed a large red button.

It was a lucky choice, for it shot into the barrel of the cannon and exploded inside. The cannon was set ablaze and then exploded from the inside stress, the remains falling into the sky below.

"Yes! Cannon down!"

Tails ran up and started climbing the ladder quickly.

"Hey! Heroes first!" Sonic said rather glib.

Tails didn't appear to hear him, and just kept on climbing upwards, until it led through a cubby hole that opened to the sky. He shouted down to Sonic, "Sonic! I can see the sky! We're on the top!"

"Finally! I keep thinking we're upside down on this Sky deck thing. Hurry it up!"

Tails climbed up to the top, and found that it was on top of the slope that divided the front half from the rear half. It was made of a smooth iron, and the way it was marked showed that it was a group of runways. On the runways were several sliding panels at regular intervals, a total of eight. There was a groove in the middle that fell through the Sky Deck below and below.

It was very windy up there. Tails ears were laid back from the force of the wind, and he was gripping the ladder top hard, just as Sonic came up. He was also surprised at the force of the wind. The wind would rival Windy Valley's if there were contests for winds.

"Wow! Why is it so windy here?" Sonic shouted.

"What?" Tails said, not being able to hear Sonic over the wind.

Sonic repeated it, but Tails still couldn't catch it. Exasperated, Sonic took Tails' ear and move it to his, and then repeated his question.

Tails did his best to reply. "I'm guessing because there are no wind blockers here! C'mon, I can't hold on to this ladder forever!"

"Hang on to my hand, and I'll get us out of here. I don't think there are any traps, save that five-foot-wide groove in the middle. If we stay away from it, we'll be safe."

That just shows that how little one can expect on something rather ordinary, for you never know what stood under those panels. It was when he stepped on one was when he knew what was under them, for the very one slid open and they both fell into it. Sonic and Tails at first thought that it was a trap door that fell into the sky below, but they fell onto more marked metal with another sliding panel in front of them. The panels above slid shut.

"What the heck is this?" Sonic exclaimed in surprise. "Is this Eggman's idea of a cruel joke?"

Then the doors ahead opened, and a boarded shark plane slid onto the panel where they stood, then the whole room rose up, the doors opening above. When it reached its full height, the plane rolled off and flew away.

"Ok, that was just a bit weird," Sonic commented dryly.

The rest of the run over the runway was uneventful, save the constant booming of cannons that seemed to shake the craft beneath their feet. Then they came to the second half of the middle portion of the Carrier, which was a pit riddled with moving canisters, sliding doors and cranes milling about. Trash was everywhere.

Sonic and Tails jumped down into a canister of trash, which was a bit more painful than either of them really were expecting. Tails even cried out in pain.

"Ouch!"

"What's wrong, kid?"

"I think I found a piece of glass in this junk pile!" Tails had withdrawn his left arm and found it scratched, not deeply apparently for there was no blood. He dug out the offending shard of glass, and picked it up.

Sonic looked at it. "Wow, it looks like a piece of a beer bottle. I didn't think Eggman would take to drinking."

Tails tapped the glass against the metal side of the canister. It tapped heavily, but it didn't feel heavy. The shard was no bigger then a stick of deodorant.

"C'mon, Tails. Let's get to the other side of this roboticized landfill. I see gates high up on the other side. It likely leads to the back side. Let's go!"

Sonic leapt down deeper into the garbage disposal pit, followed by Tails, still holding the shard, not knowing that he still had it (for it was one of those occurrences when someone just carries something but not knowing it), but later, he was glad that he still had it.

- - - - -

Knuckles was on the other side of the disposal pit, trying to home onto a shard resonance, but was having much trouble for machines kept moving, doors kept sliding open, dumping garbage out (and onto Knuckles sometimes), and robots kept getting in his way.

"Curse that Eggman," Knuckles would breathe time and time again. "What I wouldn't give to skin that egg alive."

It was then that he saw a platform that rose high above the garbage unit level. It appeared to have a control panel just on the edge of it. He at first didn't think anything of it, but when he had picked up on a shard resonance behind one of the doors, and by the sound of it, it was far back behind the gate, he thought of it again.

There must be a switch to open these doors up there, Knuckles thought.

He found, built into the wall, a ladder that led all the way up to it. It took a few moments to climb it, but when he came to it, he saw that it indeed have several buttons for commands, also it had a large joystick-like lever right in the middle.

It took quite an eye-search to find the button to open the doors on the floor below, but he found it, pressed it, and found that all the doors opened below when he glanced down. The one with the shard in it was below him on the adjacent wall. He didn't feel like digging through garbage (again), and then wondered what the lever did. His curiosity got the better of him, and he yanked the lever toward him.

- - - - -

"What the--?" Sonic exclaimed.

"Look out!" Tails shouted, just as he saw tons of garbage rolling down towards them.

What had happened was that the whole ship had tilted to where they were going, and canisters had spilled behind them, and dumped the garbage, sending the avalanche of junk towards them. Sonic grabbed Tails and jumped in time, but landed on the top of the flowing garbage.

- - - - -

Metal-Sonic lurched as if he lost his balance and nearly fell on the control panel. Dr. Robotnik was cursing aloud as he nearly flew out of his seat and onto the control pad. "What the devil is happening?"

The robot, still reeling on the slope, had checked the readings on the computers. "It appears that someone's messing with the controls in the waste disposition section, above the Sky Deck!"

Robotnik growled in anger, "Override!"

- - - - -

Amy was hot-footing it in the Hot Shelter, when suddenly the flat passage she was in suddenly seem to dip behind her, and she found herself stumbling onto the floor, arms flailing to grab anything to keep her from sliding back. Shrieking like a little girl could, she looked back behind her. Birdy chirped in utter confusion at the situation.

- - - - -

Knuckles had already glided down into the pit when he saw that the garbage had spilled and was digging out the shard, when the whole craft had even itself out, throwing Knuckles out of balance and into a nearby garbage pile.

"Ah, Eggman must've found out how to override that control panel."

Hr picked himself up and began digging again. It took him a bit of throwing the garbage about, but he found the shard as big as his fist.

"There we go." Knuckles stared down at the large shard. "Hmm, considering the size of this one, there must be only one left." He cast an ear upwards as if listening. "…and it must be nearby."

He got up, stuffed the shard into his backpack, and then made to go to the other side of the "glorified trash bin" which Knuckles would call later.

- - - - -

Sonic and Tails were strewn about the area, half-buried in the garbage heap. Sonic dug himself out, and looked at Tails. "You all right, Tails?"

Tails shook his head as if he was a little dizzy. "Yeah, kind of." He began to dig himself out, and Sonic came up to help him out.

"I wonder what caused the whole place to tilt."

"I don't know, but it was weird."

"Sonic? Tails?" a voice said behind.

Both turned to see the speaker, and found that it was Knuckles.

"Knuckles? What the fark are you doing here?" Sonic asked a little bewildered.

"I was looking for the last of the shards, and the last one's here somewhere. In fact, it should be here somewhere."

Knuckles took several quick glances around, and found that it was coming near Tails. He began digging around Tails' body, and actually found it in Tails' hand which was buried underneath the garbage.

"Tails, you have the shard?"

Tails looked down at the shard in his hand. "You mean this piece of glass?"

"That's an Emerald shard I'm looking for!" Knuckles exclaimed, amazed and impressed.

"Good grief, Tails, you've found at least three Emeralds, me on that volcano and now part of the Master Emerald. Have you ever considered going after the lottery?" Sonic said.

Tails smiled sheepishly and picked himself up.

"Hey, Knux. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?"

Knuckles looked back towards the control panel that was on the high overhang on the other side. "I saw a door clear up on that platform up there. I'm not sure where it goes, but it goes under the bridge."

"Right. C'mon, Tails, let's go!" Sonic began to run, rather clumsily on the garbage heap.

Tails began to run after Sonic, but halted and turned to Knuckles. "Are you coming, Knuckles?"

"I'll catch up later. I think this is the last shard, but I won't take chances. I'm going to search more and if I don't find more, I'll try to find you."

Tails shrugged. "Okay, good luck, Knuckles."

Tails ran off and Knuckles began looking again.

Chapter 19: Confrontations  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amy had been wandering through the Hot Shelter for a good hour, and feared that she was lost.

"Oh, Birdy. Where are we? Oh, I wish Sonic was here…"

Birdy chirped in agreement, and then looked back, and began chirping in alarm. Amy looked back, and gasped in fright.

"It's that robot! Zero!"

The hulk of a trashcan was tumbling her way, arms extended to snatch her up again as well as Birdy. Amy was frozen for a short time, but then remembered that she wasn't any longer weaponless. A spark of courage began to blaze within her heart; she leapt up with a yell mixed with fright and determination, and gave Zero such a whack that it sent him wheeling about!

Zero fell over on his side, and Amy made a noise inside showing pleasure, sounding like a high-pitched "humph." She then took of at a run and was able to gain distance from Zero, who was slowly getting up and slightly dazed by Amy's sudden strike.

Amy had gotten into a large room that was circular and had a cylindrical platform on top of a larger cylindrical platform. The door had closed behind her, and she could just hear Zero banging on the other side.

"Hmm, stupid robot." Amy's confidence in herself had grown considerably since giving the green-and-black robot a whack to remember.

She noticed that both she and Birdy were not alone for someone else was here too, and was sitting on the highest platform, and seemed to be in a bit of an enigma. The figure was the biggest, and most-certainly the fattest cat that she had ever seen. He was at least seven feet tall. He brandished a fishing pole.

The figure noticed Amy. "Hello, little girl. Can you help me?"

Amy felt insulted at first, but then realized that this cat was nearly four times her size so she did seem "little" to him, and so let it go. "Hi, what do you need help with, Mr. Cat?"

"Oh, I'm Big…"

Amy chuckled at the name, but tried to hide it. Big seemed not to notice.

"…and I'm trying to get my Froggy friend out of that glass thing over there."

Big pointed to a stained-glass pane and Amy saw that a large, green frog was swimming to and fro in the tank, behind the glass.

Amy thought about it, and decided to help out. He didn't appear to work for Robotnik, she thought.

After a good look around, she found a pressure pad in the very center of the platform. Two shoe-print guides were marked on it; Amy experimentally stepped on it, matching the marks with her feet position.

It must've triggered something, for all the glass panes slid upwards and all the water and everything in it (fish, eels and frog) spilled into the room. Amy was a little worried that the whole room would be flooded at first, but when all the water emptied into the room, it only came up to just above the apex of the first cylindrical platform, not even filling up half the room.

"Thank you…uh…what's your name?"

"I'm Amy, and this is Birdy." she motioned to the bird, who was perched on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Amy. You've been very kind."

Amy felt redder then her dress, and said "you're welcome." She then decided that it was time to leave; she said "goodbye" and departed down another hall on the opposite side.

Big on the other hand sat still and dropped the lure down into the water, and called for Froggy once in a while.

- - - - -

Gamma was still in the jail room, not moving at all, but when the red light that I mentioned before fluttered up to him, for the first time he moved. His head swiveled round to look at it. Suddenly, he was completely enveloped by the light, and he couldn't understand why.

When he was able to see again, he found that he was in a mountain plain, and could pick up the sound of running water nearby.

"Must determine location. Accessing data…"

Gamma's visual sensors focused on a nearby stone bridge, a mountain in the distance, and finally, on an ancient shrine over the bridge. No matches were found in his memory unfortunately.

"No data found. Location unknown." Gamma paused and took in the situation. "This presents a problem."

Gamma began to stride forward over the bridge to find help in any shape or form. He didn't find help necessarily, but he did find the strangest creatures he ever seen, or ever will see for that matter.

Ten or fifteen little blue creatures with large heads and small wings seemed to be making humming noises that sounded a little nasal. If one ever thought about it, he would think that these creatures were singing, a little out of harmony and rhythm from each other, but these creatures kept on as if it was no big deal.

Gamma studied them. "Creature species unknown. A peculiar place I'm in."

A bubbling noise was coming from the shrine a little further back, but the surface wasn't disturbed by it. He began to step towards the shrine for further study.

"Stop! Don't go any further!" a female voice called from behind, not from anger or aggression, but earnest as if frightened for Gamma.

Gamma's head swirled 'round and found a young Echidna girl in a peculiar garb. She seemed to be only thirteen years of age.

"Oh, I'm sorry, stranger. I guess you're not one of them, huh?"

Gamma did not answer, for he was confused.

"Have you noticed the presence that guards the chao here?"

For the first time, Gamma spoke to someone in this "vision." "If you mean the bubbling without a cause within the water, affirmative, I have."

The girl, Tikal as a matter of fact, giggled as if he found his words strange. "Well, any way, that's the presence that guards the chao here, so they can sing in peace. They are too vulnerable without him."

Gamma noticed the bubbling again.

"He's a loving and gentle creature, but…" Her tone of voice dropped to a tone that showed she was slightly saddened. "…my father, the leader of the Sapphire Tribe, wants to take their sacred home, and I'm afraid that the creature will be provoked to destroy all of us. What do you think?"

Gamma had no time to speak, for another voice rang out, one deeper and more familiar.

"Gamma! Prepare to receive battle instructions!"

Gamma physically jumped and found that he was back in the Egg Carrier.

"A hedgehog and a two-tailed fox have breached the Sky Deck and made it through the waste facility floor! You must be ready to intercept them and terminate them! You may be able to get a hoverjet before they get here. Get it, but hurry!"

"Affirmative, Dr. Robotnik!" Gamma said, a little gleefully. Dr. Robotnik must not have found out that Amy had escaped. He went to the weapons' upgrade hangar which was in the construction bay. Gamma glanced at the bay were Beta was being "rebuilt," but it was empty. Then, some robots showed Gamma to a place where he could stand and these robots began installing a hoverjet, mounted on the "hump" on Gamma's back. It took fifteen minutes, but it went uneventful.

When it was finalized, Gamma made haste to get to the rear deck, fearing that he would be late.

- - - - -

Five minutes later…

"Is that it?"

Sonic and Tails were sitting in the round main hall where the four E-series robots got their assignments and three of them failed.

"It might be, Sonic. We should find the bridge."

Sonic looked around as if he was looking for something, or someone.

"What are you looking for, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Oh, you know why I was on that volcano? Well, Amy was captured (again) and I was chasing them when you found me. I haven't seen her since!"

"Well, let's go! Maybe we'll know after we find Eggman!"

Sonic and Tails did a quick search, and found a hovercraft that went back and forth up a tube that was on the ceiling. "Let's use that!" Sonic pointed out.

They both boarded it when it came down, and were raised up into the tube.

- - - - -

"Oh, I wish we could get out of here!"

Amy and Birdy were taking a break from running near an elevator. They haven't seen Zero since before meeting Big, but Amy knew he was close somewhere.

Birdy chirped suddenly, and Amy looked up; a bright, fairy-like light fluttered towards them and around her face.

"What in the world--?"

Amy and Birdy were blinded by a sudden flash, which made their eyes smart. When the light faded, and the after-image had disappeared, they found that they were on a stone bridge over a river below.

"Where are we?" Amy looked around in bewilderment. "It's beautiful, but I wish we knew where we were…"

Both heard a commotion a good ways away, and they began to walk towards it, curiosity abounding. When Amy and Birdy got to the source, they found several bluish creatures and an Echidna-girl standing near the steps of a shrine.

Amy gasped in delight. "Chao! Oh, look, they're all so cute!"

Birdy seemed puzzled at the odd-looking creatures, and Amy was ready to pick one up and hug it over and over.

The girl, Tikal, seemed just as enamored at them as Amy was. "You're the chao! Oh, I never knew you were so cute." She stepped forwards to pick one up, but they scattered in fear. "Oh, don't worry, little ones. I won't hurt you…"

One of the chao stopped running and turned to face Tikal, and bravely stepped towards Tikal. Tikal raised a hand to pet it, and the chao recoiled at first, but he raised his head and let her pet him. He fell in love with her, and wanted to be picked up. Tikal obliged it, and was soon in the mass of chao when they saw that she was a friend. They began chattering in their various high-pitched voices.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from the shrine, and Tikal, Amy and Birdy looked in awe and terror as the water raised up and formed into a creature with green eyes and long arms.

Wind! The chill! Amy and Birdy awoke and found that they were on the rear deck of the Egg Carrier. The wind and the chill were stronger here, for she was in the Hot Shelter a good four hours which was considerably warmer.

"Ah, we're out of that room! Now we can find a way to get out of here!"

Amy began looking around for anything or anyway to get off this ship.

"Where do you think you're going, Amy?"

Amy looked up and trembled; she recognized that voice. It was Robotnik.

He was in his hovercraft which he piloted to be right in front of Amy. "Hello, Amy, how can I help you today, hmm?" He chuckled menacingly. "On a more serious note, I want the bird!"

"Robotnik, no!" Amy clenched Birdy to her side.

"Leave her alone, Eggman!"

Amy and Robotnik looked towards the voice, and found Sonic and Tails striding towards them. "I'll make this easy, Eggman. Let Amy go, and I'll think about letting you keep your liver intact!" Sonic said, index finger raised to show seriousness.

"Hmm, rather dark, Sonic, but you're too late!" Robotnik replied.

The claw rose out and snatched up Birdy so quickly that none of them could react in time.

"Birdy!" Amy reached out in vain.

Sonic was ready to tear apart the hovercraft at once, but Robotnik had positioned it too high and out of his reach. Birdy chirped loudly in protest, but just as quickly as he was snatched up, he was released. He fluttered about and flew to Amy, looking a little shell-shocked.

"Ha! This is what I want!" Robotnik shouted over the wind, and held up a sky-blue gem.

Tails gasped. "It's another Chaos Emerald! The bird had it!"

"That was no ordinary bird, Tails. That was a Flicky!" Sonic pointed out. "A Royal Flicky if he would bear such a treasure."

"Be gone, all of you! I've got what I need, and you got the girl back!" Robotnik pointed to Sonic.

"What makes you think that I'm just going to stand here and let you give that to Chaos?" Sonic yelled. "I might just stay here and wait for you to do something stupid!"

"Gamma!" Robotnik barked.

A clang like metal on metal rang out behind Sonic and Tails, and naturally they turned around. There stood a red robot with a small body but long legs. A three-barrel gun was it's right arm. It was Gamma.

"What is your request, Master Robotnik?"

"Destroy these pests, all of them!"

"Affirmative, doctor, I will comply."

"I'm counting on you, Gamma. Don't fail me!"

Robotnik flew out towards the front of the Carrier, and Sonic stood facing Gamma, who was rotating weapons to fire.

"Stay back, Tails! I'll handle this rust-bucket!"

Sonic leapt up into the air, and at a good time, for a missile was fired and hit the spot where his feet were. He began to run circles 'round Gamma, reading his defenses. Gamma kept trying to lock on, but Sonic was too fast a runner.

Sonic attacked so fast to the head suddenly so that Gamma was taken completely off-guard. He reeled back and his visual sensors were temporarily impaired, but they switched back on. Just in time too, for Sonic was charging again. Gamma rose his left hand to swipe at him. Sonic was hit in the chest and was sent flying. He lay, windless and a little smarting.

Tails saw the danger and attacked at Gamma's feet with his tails. The leg seemed to collapse, and bolts of blue electricity shot to and fro.

"Stop it! Please!" Amy was shouting.

Sonic had gotten up and hit the robot in the torso. Gamma's insides were beginning to malfunction and were in danger if Sonic attacked again.

Gamma had a lucky break when the unexpected happened: Sonic was charging to give the final blow, but Amy stepped in between them. "Stop it!"

Sonic skidded to a halt, completely surprised. "What are you doing, Amy? That's one of Eggman's clunkers! Get out of the way!"

"No!" Amy held her arms outstretched and stood in absolute defiance. "This robot is my friend! He helped me and Birdy to escape! Please don't hurt him, Sonic." Amy folded her hands now and pleaded with Sonic.

"Amy…" Sonic started, but then considered what was going on. Amy was pleading for Gamma's life, something she's never do, for she hated robots. "Oh, I'll let him go then. You must have your reasons, I guess."

"Oh, thank you, Sonic."

Suddenly, all four of them felt the entire Egg Carrier shake as if an earthquake rumbled through. Sirens wailed and warnings blared through the speakers.

"Warning! Warning! Fire hazard located in Egg Cannon inner chamber! Craft equilibrium has been compromised! Warning!"

Tails gasped, "The whole ship is losing altitude!"

"We're fresh outta time!" Sonic said, realizing the danger. " Tails, take Amy and get out of here!"

"But what about you?" Amy asked.

"I'm going to find Eggman, and nail him!" Sonic took off towards the bridge.

"Thank you, Sonic, for coming to save me as usual!" Amy called out, and heard metal grinding and looked back to see Gamma standing up, but seemed that he was having trouble. "Are you okay?"

"Auto-repair systems have been commenced. I will be 100 functional within two hours," Gamma reported.

"Why don't you come with Tails, Birdy and I? You don't need to be under that awful Eggman. Just leave him."

"Why are you trying to help me?"

"I said that I owe you one back there in that jail, so I'm returning the favor. I want you to have a better life away from Eggman, even Birdy here wants you to leave."

Birdy chirped, and seemed to nod.

"Amy, come on!" Tails called out.

"I hope to see you again, Mr. Robot!" Amy called behind, as she ran to Tails.

When she arrived, Tails took to the air and snatched up Amy with two hands. Birdy flew behind them and they all escaped from the Egg Carrier. Gamma suddenly hunched down, and a six-bladed propeller unfolded on his "waist," and begun to spin quickly. He lifted off and he too escaped.

- - - - -

Sonic had reached the mouth of the waste area, when he realized that he couldn't get there without going back through the Sky Deck, something that would take way too long.

"If I'm to continue, I need to find a way to get this ship back into its old shape. There must be a switch on the bridge…somewhere. I have to find it!"

Sonic quickly scanned the "head" of the Carrier, and found a ladder leading toward a high door. He began to climb it without hesitation, and got to the top. He looked to see if Amy and Tails left. They had and he saw them fly off.

"Good job, Tails. Now to find that switch…"

He opened the door, and at once he knew that he was on the bridge. The only thing was that the button was unlabeled and was among many other switches and buttons.

"Oh, crap. I hope I find it soon."

He felt the whole ship shake again, and just pressed several buttons until he heard the computer voice state: Battle procedures have been canceled and normal procedures have commenced. Resuming monorail operation.

"Great, now to find Eggman."

Chapter 20: Chaos 6  
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Big the Cat had fished out Froggy sometime during the confrontation between Sonic and Gamma, and had taken him out of the Hot Shelter. When he did, he felt the entire floor shake.

"Uh oh, we better get out of here, little buddy! It feels like the whole place will explode!"

Big then heard a voice that came from nowhere which startled him, and Froggy croaked in surprise.

"Battle procedures have been canceled and normal procedures have commenced. Resuming monorail operation."

Instantly, he saw that a craft that seems to be moving on a rail. Big saw it open and thought it was a free ride like the train. When he climbed on, he felt the sensation of moving and was on it for a while, then it opened again and he was beside a large, green-glass cylinder.

He climbed a ramp that led up to a pathway that led beside it.

"We can make it, Froggy. We can go home and we'll go fishing!"

Then, he heard a voice that lots of people knew, except him. "Ah, I see you're trying to get away. I see that I'm not too late."

"Who are you?" Big asked.

"I am Dr. Robotnik! Soon-to-be ruler of the world!"

"That's bad, doctor."

"I know! It's what I do best…" Robotnik waved his arms dramatically. "Chaos! Come here!"

Big nearly jumped when water spilled onto the cylinder and suddenly changed into the shape of a shark.

"What's that?" Big said, a little afraid.

"That's Chaos, you idiot!" He turned to the monster. "Chaos, quick! Get the frog!"

Chaos suddenly whipped out his knife-like tail which slapped into Big which made him drop Froggy and Chaos eagerly scooped him up and into his body. In the mean time, Robotnik had thrown the Sky Blue Chaos Emerald towards Chaos' body and he absorbed it in. Froggy inside twitched suddenly and his mouth opened wide and out came the Yellow Emerald.

Suddenly, a huge greenish flash erupted from Chaos' body, and the shark's body melted away, and when it came back, it was three times bigger and in the shape vaguely of a six-legged spider, for its legs rose above its body. Instead of two, featureless eyes, it had eight eyes like a spider: two large ones and six smaller ones.

"Don't forget the tail, Chaos! The frog's possessed by it!" Robotnik said.

Big was mortified; Froggy twitched like he was trapped in a high-voltage room, and the tail snapped off suddenly and disappeared in a flash of light. Froggy seemed to faint from pain. Another flash came out and a huge tail grew out of the rear side. A stinger formed at the end in the shape of a crescent. Chaos had become a hideous water-scorpion!

It was now when a blue hedgehog ran up and saw Big lying on the floor, Robotnik and Chaos changed again.

"Eggman! Aw, will you never stop?"

"Ha ha, never, Sonic! I've found six of the Chaos Emeralds and so there's only one left, and I feel that it's close."

Sonic felt a rock settle into his stomach: The Emerald in the Tornado! He tried to hide his sudden shock, but wasn't completely sure he was successful.

Big got up and saw Froggy inside the water monster's body. "Oh no! I must save Froggy!"

Sonic looked at Chaos and saw that a large frog was floating unconsciously inside Chaos. "He's your friend?" Sonic asked Big.

Big nodded. "Yes! We must save him!"

"Go on, Sonic! Try! Chaos is nearly complete, and he'll finish you even now!" Robotnik laughed ant sat back, expecting easy victory.

Chaos roared, and Sonic and Big covered their ears, eyes closed and teeth clinched in agony, for Chaos roared like a dragon.

"I'll distract him, and you fish out your frog-friend!"

Big understood, and picked up his fishing pole. "Let's do it!"

- - - - -

There was yet another figure left on the Carrier, and he was still on the other side. It was Knuckles, and after finding the last shard, he was looking for Sonic and Tails, but found neither.

He called out, "Sonic? Tails? Where are you?"

Something fluttered by his head, and it seemed bright. There it was again, and it was the same light that he met the last three times. "You again?"

A bright light shone out in front of him, and he saw nothing else. When his vision had returned, he saw that it was night, and he stood on one side of a bridge.

"Oh, not again."

Knuckles could tell that something was not right here, for he felt like something terrible happened. A bright red light shone ahead, and Knuckles then smelled smoke.

"Good grief, something's on fire!"

Knuckles ran towards the glow, and was appalled at the scene he saw next. His heart nearly broke when he took it all in.

The Master Emerald shrine that he had seen in a vision earlier was ablaze with fire. The seven pillars around the shrine had been broken, not just cracked but snapped in two like twigs. He could see that the seven Emeralds perched on those were gone. Several bodies in front of the shrine lay dead. The chao were all dead. The only one who wasn't dead was Tikal, who was lying unconscious at the front steps. Knuckles only could've told that she wasn't dead by feeling and found that she was still warm, and breathing.

"Hey, what's happened here?" Knuckles shook Tikal's shoulder, and she stirred.

Tikal did not get up, but she spoke, "I couldn't stop my father from attacking the sacred grounds. They came, killed all the noble creatures, and then…he came and suddenly changed! He became a giant dragon and killed everyone, then disappeared!"

Knuckles then heard a roar in the distance, which nearly turned his blood into water. The roar, even though frightening, sounded sad.

"I have to stop him!"

Tikal got up and began running up the steps.

Knuckles called out, "Wait! Where are you going?"

Suddenly without any warning, he found that he was standing on the Egg Carrier rear deck again. "What is the meaning of this?"

Suddenly a huge roar that brought Knuckles to a stand-still rang out over the whole craft.

"Chaos!" Knuckles thought with a touch of fear. "He must've changed again, and got a mouth!"

Knuckles took off towards the sound.

- - - - -

"Hey, water-bag! Over here, you two-faced twit!"

Chaos 6 may've been bigger, but his size made him move slower. Sonic was running to and fro trying to distract Chaos enough for Big to have enough time to fish Froggy out. Froggy had woken up and was desperate to get out, huddling against the side of Chaos' body closest to Big.

The reel broke through the watery flesh of Chaos, and Froggy at once snatched it up. Big yanked, but Froggy wouldn't pop out at first. He kept yanking the line and Froggy kept kicking trying to break through. At last, Froggy popped out and Big caught him.

"Froggy!" Big laughed joyfully, petting the exhausted and bewildered frog. "Let's go home."

"Get out of here! I'll take care of this beast!" Sonic called out.

"Bye!" Big called out, and ran off carrying the frog.

He came to a small plane on the runway above the Egg Carrier. He looked down and saw fire licking the iron panels. He stared at the plane.

"Huh? It's a plane!" Big said. "Maybe we could use it to get out of here…but I don't know how to use it."

Froggy croaked.

"Ok, I guess I can try…"

Big climbed into the cockpit, but only could fit his tail into it, and just sat on the top, feet hanging out. It took a few minutes, but he got the plane started and using one hand, he steered the plane, and off they went.

I will say that Big was able to land safely on land, and the only damage on the Tornado was that the metal on the bottom-most wings were gone. Big thought the flight was okay, but never considered a career of it after.

Now we must go back to Sonic, who was fighting for his life against Chaos, and Robotnik wasn't making it easy; he kept throwing liquid nitrogen bombs which would detonate after a good amount of time (about five minutes) and make the glass they were both on as slick as ice. Sonic needless to say slipped like a novice at ice-skating, and tried to keep his balance.

He had tried a shot to the head for that's where the brain usually was, but in Chaos 6, the brain relocated into the center of the body like a heart. Several nerves like veins scattered throughout the body and wrapped around the Emeralds in the legs.

Chaos open his mouth and inhaled deeply, causing a hurricane-force wind to come within him. Sonic gripped the railing around the circumference of the platform for dear life, but this move hurt Chaos more, for an ice-bomb that didn't detonate just yet was sucked in and detonated in there.

Chaos suddenly twitched, rose up and froze over into a solid block of ice. Sonic felt the wind suddenly drop and saw Chaos locked in ice.

"Huh, I think we've just found the weak spot," Sonic thought, and then attacked the ice sculpture in a ball of spines. The ice broke like glass, and Sonic scoffed at Robotnik, who couldn't believe his eyes.

Then, the ice that was Chaos melted and Chaos reformed and shook himself as if he was hit in the head. Sonic picked up another grenade that Robotnik had just thrown out, and advanced up towards Chaos, waiting for the mouth to open.

Chaos didn't oblige him, but what he did was that he leapt up into the air and when he landed, a huge wave of energy flew away like a ripple on water when a stone drops in. Sonic jumped in time and it passed harmlessly under him, although he still felt the heat on it.

Chaos tried again, and again failed. Each time he did that, the glass broke underneath and the glass fell into the machinery below and there was an awful grinding sound that floated from underneath. Then he tried to strike him with his stinger, which glowed a bright orange. Sonic yelped and just barely avoided being decapitated by the monster. Chaos started to go after him again, and again opened his mouth about to suck him in again. Sonic was ready; when Chaos started inhaling, he tossed up the bomb, and it went in precisely as planned.

Chaos froze over again, and Sonic again broke the ice statue.

Chaos was very furious, and before Sonic could get another bomb, the monster melted into a bulb-shaped blob, the six legs tucked in, feet sticking out. The tail detached and remounted on the apex of the bulb. The stinger grew to twice its normal size. Sonic wasn't sure what to do, for he never saw Chaos do a morphing trick, besides melting away.

Many glowing dots appeared on the flesh, and popped out, followed by a watery tentacle which felt as tough as hard leather. The tentacles pretty much pinned Sonic into a small pocket, and Sonic immediately saw what Chaos was about to do.

The monster shot the stinger in a swinging motion so it would come back slapping Sonic from the relatively-unprotected back. Sonic's timing was nearly impeccable, for he saw the stinger shoot above him, and he leapt when it did so. It flew underneath him with a whoosh, and the tentacles withdrew.

Chaos reformed and Sonic was growing impatient: time was growing short and who knew if the Egg Cannon would explode when the power core would be breached anytime now likely.

Chaos was now only stones-throw away, and Sonic decided to take a chance. He scooped up a grenade and threw into Chaos' face. Chaos backed away in surprise, but that was a very unfortunate choice; if Chaos would've stayed where he was, the grenade would've bounced off his face and fell without harming him, but when he backed off, the grenade fell into his mouth and exploded. Chaos was again a statue of ice.

"Ha! Take this, Chaos!" Sonic said, crashing into the ice, shattering it. The only thing was that Chaos did not reform.

"Hmm, looks like Chaos is defeated again, Eggman!"

Robotnik stood in disbelief in his hovercraft, not sure what to do.

Then, a familiar voice spoke through the wind. "Hey, Sonic!"

Sonic looked and found his old friend, Knuckles the Echidna, running towards him.

"There you are, Knuckles. Glad you decided to show up!"

Robotnik found his tongue. "I'm not done, Sonic! We shall meet again, hedgehog!"

The human turned his hovercraft and flew off the Egg Carrier descending gradually, but not without event.

"Hey, come back here!" Sonic ran off after him, and leapt off the ship.

Knuckles chuckled. "I guess he really didn't need me after all. Now, I have some patch-up work back on the Island."

Suddenly he heard a deep, guttural growl that made his skin crawl, felt like someone else was here. He turned around and saw the insectoid shape of Chaos, standing boldly and proudly, as if trying to intimidate Knuckles.

"Ha, you think you can stop me? You can't stop me from finishing the Master Emerald! I'll take you down before you take me!"

Knuckles raised a fist in defiance, and Chaos growled again. Knuckles strode forward, and found that parts were wet. A little puzzled he had one eye on Chaos, and the other finding out what the heck is going on.

Chaos made no move, and Knuckles found pieces of metal, as if from a grenade. He then found trinkets the size on his fist, and they were ice cold. He had an idea:

Knuckles picked up a grenade and began stalking towards Chaos. Chaos reacted different to Knuckles; instead of trying every move to take out Sonic, but Knuckles seemed to display some strange unseen power over him, and so seemed very hesitant to do anything.

Even Knuckles was rather surprised about Chaos' hesitation but was liking it secretly. "Either leave me to do my business, Chaos, or I shall take you down, drip by drip!"

Chaos felt ridiculous being intimidated by a small red Echidna, and his will

hardened. He took a step forward, and opened his mouth to chomp him, but Knuckles back away a few steps, took a deep breath, and threw the bomb in.

It worked like a charm; Chaos reeled back and froze into a statue. Knuckles needless to say made a swipe with his spiked hand.

Chaos broke with a terrible crash, just as before, melted away and reformed into the water-scorpion again. Knuckles grinned inside; he'll whip this giant raindrop into shape yet.

Chaos forgot about his past hesitation and grew angry with Knuckles, like he was when he first broke out of the Master Emerald a few days before. He tried the same tactics before with Sonic, since Knuckles was a slower prey. What Chaos didn't count on that Knuckles made up in strength over the lack of speed.

Knuckles was the kind of person that would never walk away from a fight (for Echidnas have a large tendency to have a martial attitude, like the ancient Spartans of Greece) and was not wavered. He was already armed with another grenade and waited for the opportunity.

He made mind not to get anywhere near the missing panes of glass where the machinery was exposed. Anyone who dropped in there would be toast for sure.

Chaos decided the inhaling trick again, and Knuckles was almost a little too close. The grenade left his hand and he went flying towards Chaos. Fortunately he had let go of the grenade and it went in first.

I won't bother to tell the process of Chaos being smash again for I'm sure you're very familiar with it already. Chaos 6 no longer decided to use the inhalation trick for that exposed him to attack.

The stinger lashed out like a whip to a horse, striking at Knuckles repeatedly. The Echidna was hard pressed to keep from getting pummeled. The first dodge, he was a little too late and ended up with a bruised calf, which smarted for days afterwards.

Knuckles knew he was running out of time, for he too had felt the ship shake as if it was going to break in half, and the grenades were running low. In fact, only two left actually.

He took the last two, one in each hand, and stood ready for any move that Chaos would show. Chaos growled in complete anger and frustration, and Knuckles growled back in aggression and mockery.

Knuckles suddenly felt the sensation of sinking, like on the island a few days ago, but much faster. "I'm out of time!" Knuckles charged at Chaos 6, and pretty much slam dunked the grenade into his mouth, and nearly got his fingers chomped.

Chaos froze, and Knuckles broke the statue. This time, the ice remained, and six jewels fell from higher up in the air and fell onto the glass.

"What? The Chaos Emeralds? Why did Chaos give them up?"

The ice blocks were there, melting at the normal speed, but no Chaos. The Chaos Emeralds lay motionless.

Knuckles made up his mind to take the Emeralds before Chaos decided to come back, and did so, stuffing each Emerald into his backpack, mildly burning himself on the red one. He could feel the heat coming off of it when he put it on, but when it touched the Master Emerald shards, it instantly cooled. Knuckles was perplexed at the sudden chilling of the Red Emerald, but when the Carrier shook again, he thought not to waste anymore time.

He slipped on the backpack, ran to the edge, and glided off, and not a second too late; the Egg Carrier started bursting in several places, and then burst into flame. Knuckles looked back and saw the Egg Carrier sink and fall into the ocean, dousing the flames. The Echidna secretly wanted to see the whole dang craft to explode, but considering that he still wasn't too far from it, he thought otherwise.

"Now back to Angel Island…"

Chapter 21: Night of Hazards  
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Sonic lay unconsciousness in a deep jungle, the sun was still relatively high, about 5 o'clock; he couldn't have told if it was day or night back on the Egg Carrier for the sky was overcast with the dark clouds of a storm.

The hedgehog woke up, and felt pain everywhere. He then remembered why he was so sore: he fell off of Robotnik's craft when he leapt on it from the Carrier.

"Ah, I hate that Eggman!" Sonic found that his side, stomach, arms and feet. Very shallow scratches showed on his arms, not bleeding, but a hair swollen. He must've fallen through trees and probably bounced off a few branches. That would explain a lot of his bruises.

The only thing he managed to do was to short out one of the engine of the hovercraft.

"Where am I?" he thought, looking around in confusion. "It seems familiar, but I don't think I've been here before."

If Sonic was higher up on nearby cliffs, he would've recognized the jungle, for he and Tails had flown above it two days before, but seeing the jungle from within is quite different from seeing it from above.

Then, he realized that he was starving, for the last meal was breakfast back at the hotel. "Aren't there some fruit trees here or something?"

He walked down the paths, which always split or merged into other paths and made it a perfect maze.

"What in the world?"

Sonic had just seen a light flutter by and was initially surprised. Then he saw a stone building that looked like a pyramid that he saw back on the Floating Island, in the Marble Gardens nearly three years before. The light seemed to be fluttering towards it.

"That light, it wants me to follow it…"

Sonic strode forwards and got as far as to the top of the stairs, but stopped at the door, decorated with an open snake mouth. "Uh, no…I'm not going in there. No way, José!"

The light fluttered back up to Sonic's head, and seemed to be talking.

"You must! It's for us all!"

"Us? Who's 'us?'"

"You're friends! Tails, Knuckles, Amy…"

Sonic glared in suspicion. "How do you know them?"

"I've showed them parts of the past, and to save the world, you must see this!"

"In there? What's in there, the Stargate portal?"

"Just come on. It's about Chaos!"

"Chaos? What about Chaos?"

"Come on in!"

Sonic growled inside. "Oh, all right. I'll go with you, but if one spine raises on my neck, or if I smell something fishy, I'm gone, got it, fairy-butt?"

The light flew on, apparently not really listening to Sonic; the hedgehog followed it in. It was dark, but thank goodness for Sonic, the blue wristlet he bought that morning started glowing, and the hallway was lit with its glow. The whole hall sloped downwards, then it came to a room where sat a shallow pool, and greenery on the other side. A tunnel sat on a ledge over the greenery.

Sonic was wondering how green plants could grow in such a dark environment, but the light urged him down the tunnel. It was a rather strange tunnel, for instead of going straight, it twisted to and fro, up and down. It would make a good running track, but Sonic had no time for levity.

It was when he got to a turn in the tunnel when he began thinking about what was ahead; the tunnel had flame jets and rolling walls. It reminded him of Temple of Doom, a video he saw once in between trouble against Robotnik.

He saw that the light wanted him to go through.

"Are you kidding me? How do you want it: rare, medium, or well done?"

The light seemed to ignore him; Sonic shrugged, and stepped in. He didn't go at a run obviously, he went at a walk, watching the flame jets closely.

- - - - -

The sun was setting on the people in Station Square, and if one looked toward the sea, he would see something, or someone flying in. And if he waited, he would've seen that it was two kids and a bird.

A few minutes later, the two kids, Tails and Amy, landed safely on the sidewalk in front of the train station.

"Whoo, thanks, Tails." Amy looked up and saw Birdy fluttering towards her.

"It's no problem, Amy. I'll see you later." Tails began to walk away.

Amy sat down on the steps, Birdy landing beside her. "Sonic seems to be saving me all the time, and I can't seem to repay him. I need to grow up and learn to look after myself."

Birdy chirped.

She looked at the hotel, where her mother worked if you remember right. "Oh, I'm gonna get it from my Mom." Amy happened to glance down at Birdy. "You surprised me earlier, having a Chaos Emerald, you know? No wonder they were after you my feathered friend."

Amy petted the bird's head, and when she came to the neck, her fingers fell on something.

"Hey, what's that?" She looked at it. "It looks like a necklace chain, and…you have a locket around your neck." Amy had traced the chain around and found a locket that was shaped like an octagonal stone, bluish in color. Amy opened it and found a picture of three birds: One cream-colored one, one reddish one, and Birdy himself.

"This is your family, isn't it? Aww, they're so sweet. Did they get captured like you did?"

Birdy chirped, and lowered his head.

"I bet they were. Hmm, where could they be…ah! That nice robot said that the Egg Carrier was heading to the Mystic Ruins base. They must be there. Wanna go?"

Birdy looked up, a shine of hope in his eyes.

"I've been missing all day; I might as well be missing during the night. Let's go to the Mystic Ruins and let's find that base."

Amy started walking towards the train station door.

Now we must go to Tails, who was about to have the adventure of a lifetime. He had walked away, and saw something else flying towards the city over the bay.

Tails squinted, for it was hard to see due to the sunset, but he could tell that it was round, and made of metal.

"Hey, it looks like Robotnik's craft! If he's here, where's Sonic?"

The craft seemed to be having trouble, and it crashed into the cement near the entrance of Twinkle Park. Tails snuck closer, and the fact that the hovercraft was facing towards the City Hall road, Tails remained unseen.

His ears caught Robotnik muttering, and Tails did not like the sound of it. "I'm finished! Chaos was defeated by that hedgehog, and my Egg Carrier is ruined! Hmm, I'll still destroy Sapphire City anyway."

Tails' eyes popped open. What did he mean by "destroy Sapphire City?"

His answer came in the form of rumbling out in the ocean. The fox turned, anxiety growing like a weed, and he felt like he turned into water as a huge missile emerged from the water. Then it hit him like a load of bricks: the only thing that could decimate a city this size was a nuclear bomb.

"If that missile is launched…"

He didn't finish, for he just heard Robotnik begin to countdown. "3…2…1…ready, FIRE!"

Smoke emitted from the base and the rocket lifted off. The roar was so intense that Tails was blown down onto his rear. He felt so helpless that even if a crippled entombed in plaster couldn't have been any more helpless.

They all…were doomed.

The missile flew into the skyscraper region, Tails clinched and awaited the blast that would rip him apart, cell by cell. He heard a deep crash in the distance…

…and nothing else.

- - - - -

"Whoa, swimming party."

Sonic was now in a large stone room that had several ledges up towards the ceiling. He felt that the entire Egg Carrier could fit easily in this room. Scratch that, two Egg Carriers.

The light had fluttered up towards the highest ledge, and Sonic was left on the bottom.

"How to get up? Hmm…"

The ledges were too far up to just climb up, or even jump up, despite Sonic's possession of a great vertical. He walked around the ledge that he was standing on, looking for anything, like a climbing rope.

"C'mon, people. There's gotta be something to get me up there!" Sonic spoke out loud as if to somebody, but the only thing that answered him was his own echo.

It was when he came to the edge of the ledge, and where another started above, when he saw something besides the brown stones. It was a circular platform, and on top of that was a circular button, about as big as Sonic himself, and it was made of lapis lazuli.

"Hmm, a button. I wonder what it does?"

Curiosity took hold and he stepped on the button, he heard a rumble deep below the surface of the water and the water began to rise.

"Oh, crap…"

Sonic was not a keen swimmer, and quit lessons long before now for he didn't enjoy water as something besides a thirst-quencher and plant feed.

The water began lapping at his ankles, then his knees, and then he found himself treading water. Sonic hoped that it wouldn't fill up the room completely.

It stopped at the ledge that was next up, and Sonic climbed onto it. There was another platform and another button, but it was square, but the same color as the last one. Sonic was hesitant, but pressed it.

Nothing happened, at least at first, but he did hear a hum from the very top, close to the uppermost ledge.

"Hmm, sounded like I did something up there. I'll have to see what…"

The ledge went higher by steps, then he saw another button, but it was behind several rows of earth-colored spikes.

"Wow, they sure make a point, these guys."

Sonic thought about jumping over it, but wasn't sure how far those spikes went. He jumped up to see, and saw that there were only four rows.

"Ah, no problem."

He jumped over them like it was just a hurdle, and landed squarely on the other button. The water rose again, and it stopped at the bottom of the ledge he stood on. The next one was on the other side of the room.

"Crap, now how am I…what on earth?"

Sonic never finished his wondering on how to get to the other side when the largest creature that he ever saw suddenly emerged from the deep well. It was a snake, as long as a jet plane. Its body was as thick as a trunk of a redwood tree.

Sonic huddled against the platform and watched the snake closely, ready to dash anywhere if the snake gave any sign of wanting hedgehog fricassee for supper.

What Sonic noticed first was the stone blue eyes; they seemed to be glowing in the semi-darkness, much like Sonic's wristlet. Another thing was that the snake seemed to do nothing but swimming in a vague figure eight pattern. (If one studied the movement closely, it would've looked like a figure eight, within a figure eight.)

Sonic waited there for a good five minutes, and was rather surprised to see that the snake never broke from its swimming pattern. He dared to get closer and saw the body of the snake as it got next to the ledge. It was stone. The snake was a stone machine.

Sonic chuckled, partly embarrassed and happy, and got an idea: the snake kept meeting one of the ledges on one of its sweeps, so what if he used it to get across?

He put his idea into action once the stone snake passed by again. It worked beautifully; Sonic got to the next ledge, all puffed up inside for thinking up the idea. He found another square button, but it was green. He pushed it and heard the hum again, just like when he pressed the blue button before.

- - - - -

Gamma was hovering over the sea, pretty high up, which was a good thing considering that the shore ahead were sea cliffs over five hundred feet high.

The robot seemed occupied; it's memory banks were flashing different pictures into his "mind." The first one was Beta being torn apart and being placed back together in the construction bay. The second was the instant before the three other E-series 'bots beamed out and banished. The third was of a pink hedgehog girl, Amy she was called. The next one was of the face of Dr. Robotnik, when Gamma had first awoken.

The pictures flashed again, faster they went each time, until they became blurs.

"Must…delete…registration…" Gamma droned, with trouble.

When he landed on the top of the cliffs, he took a few steps, balked and shuddered, then straightened up.

"Master registration had been deleted. Dr. Robotnik, enemy. E-series, friends."

Gamma looked around, and now that he had rebelled from Robotnik's service, he took on a new task: to rescue the other E-series robots, namely Beta, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta.

"Must save friends…"

Gamma began walking towards the tunnel with the rocks at the base of the mouth.

- - - - -

Tails opened his eyes, and found that he was still sitting on the sidewalk in Station Square. He felt a little silly, but overall, confused. What happened to the nuclear blast?

He got up and looked at Robotnik, who hadn't moved, and looked just as perplexed as Tails was.

"Ah! It was a dud! I can't believe this!"

"A dud? Whew, lucky break," Tails thought.

"Hmm, well I'll still detonate it yet." Robotnik hovered upwards and towards the Speed Highway elevator.

Tails couldn't believe what was happening: a nuclear bomb was somewhere in Sapphire City, and now Eggman was going towards it to manually detonate it.

"Oh, someone has to beat him to it!"

Then he realized that he was alone this time. Sonic was not there to blast his way to there.

"Oh, I have to do it. The entire fate of this city rests on me." Tails heart melted. "Sonic…"

Tails shook his head, drooped, feeling completely helpless once again.

"I wish Sonic was here. I wish none of this happened…"

Suddenly, something deep in his past, when he was only a toddler back north of the Great Forest, came to him and rose in his soul; he remembered what his father said when the first remnants of Robotnik's armies were coming to destroy the village. Tails had thought the same thing and said so to his father.

"I wish I didn't have to leave, dad; I wish none of this happened…"

His father, with a voice of wisdom had replied, "I know. Any who live to see times like this say the same, but that's not for us to decide at all, skipper. What we have to decide is what to do with all of the time given to us. I know that you'll do fine, Tails."

Tails wiped a tear from his eye, and knew what he had to do. He felt like he was going to turn into sand, but he needed to do this.

He found Eggman tearing an entrance through the door of the elevator. Tails snuck in, and waited behind the craft, waiting for the doors to slide open.

"I have to get to that missile. I have to get to that missile…" Tails kept repeating this in his mind.

When the doors opened, Robotnik went first, Tails behind, running as fast as he could. The human seemed to sense his presence, and saw Tails.

"You? You think you can beat me to that missile, Tails?"

"I don't think, Eggman! I can!"

Tails clicked his heels, remembering his anklets, and spun his tails. Tails took off like a missile himself and soared over the highway. Robotnik cursed and accelerated himself. The race began…

- - - - -

Sonic had reached the uppermost ledge where he discovered the use of those square buttons. Over the door were three panels, color-correspondent to the three square buttons that Sonic had pushed. They were alit, and the door had slid open before he got to the top.

The passage was long, lit with torches, and smelled damp. The light had been waiting for him, and led him through, until they got to a large, very dark room. No light, save a huge orb of phosphorescent crystal near where Sonic had come into the room was in the room. The crystal was covered on one end and a visor was put on so that it would shine in one direction.

"Ok, where to now?"

The fairy fluttered away into the darkness. Sonic could hear water flowing deeper in the room. "Crap, more water."

Sonic strode forward, left arm outstretched since it proved to be a sufficient light source. He came to a stone walkway, and in the middle, a strange platform with a large disc on it sat there. Sonic got close to it, and when he got close enough, the disc caught the light and reflected it into many directions. He blinked in the bluish light, and turned away.

He saw that on closer inspection, the lens was actually a mirror, which would explain how it could reflect the light so well. Sonic looked back and saw the light from the orb.

Rising out of the water to his left was another mirror, fixed in one position though.

"It's a mirror machine of some kind," Sonic thought. "This must be how the light can get across the room."

He then figured that this may be his way to get through the room without falling into the water. Sonic moved the disk so that it caught the light, and then turned it slightly and the light bounced off the disk and into the nearby mirror.

Suddenly, there was light almost everywhere; Sonic blinked and saw his path illuminated in a cold blue light.

It could've been easier, but time and decay play a role in the world efficiently. Sonic was forced to avoid holes, jump over places where the stone had broken off and sank into the water, and balance on narrow places where the stone broke off on both sides.

The end of the twisting path was a large pit, full of water, and was way too wide to jump, for he could see a door on the other side lit by torches. It must be at least a hundred feet away from him.

"Now what?"

The light fluttered up. "Jump."

Sonic glared at the light. "Do I look stupid to you?"

"It's perfectly safe."

"So is skydiving."

"You have the tool. Use it."

"Tool?"

"Have you forgotten the Ring?"

Sonic looked under his cuff and found the Power Ring, shedding a golden radiance on his face. "Well, maybe."

"You can use that."

"How come I never thought about that?" the hedgehog thought, and placed the ring on his ring finger.

Sonic felt something change in his feet. Looking down, he saw the heels light up a bright gold. He thought this was cool, but then the light pleaded to him to hurry.

Sonic felt pressed and he didn't like to be, but he had no choice. He went into a stationary spin-dash, and he could feel the power of the Ring flowing through him. His blue fur lit and illuminated the water below. Then, he jumped across.

It was more like flying then jumping; he found himself soaring over the water below, through the door, down the hall and nearly smacked into a wall before the energy gave out. Sonic looked back and laughed triumphantly. He then wondered about his shoes, were they built to work with the energy of Power Rings?

He decided to dwell on that later. The next place was a swiftly running river, flowing down through a tunnel that led downwards and curved to and fro.

The light fluttered down it, and Sonic followed. He felt like he was on a water slide in an amusement park. It didn't last long, not even long enough for him to wonder what was on the bottom.

It was a small waterfall that flowed into a shallow pool where the water flowed into from the pyramid. Sonic landed on a small island, and looked around.

"It looks like I came back out." Sonic looked up, but the sky was obscured by treetops. No light seemed to get through."

He looked up and saw the mouth of another passageway on the other side of the pool. He had to hop islands to get there, but it was pretty much effortless.

The light was waiting for him, and it spoke. "Careful, Sonic. In this passageway, you must run. Just run. Don't stop, always run."

"Well, what's in there that's so dangerous?" Sonic was peering down into the passageway, and it was fairly ordinary, just sloping downwards and straight. He thought he smelled something burning, but thought it was torches on the sides.

"Just run. Your life depends on it."

Sonic felt like turning back and leaving the light to her own problems, but then he realized that there was no way back up that water chute. Growling, he began running down the passage.

It wasn't even five seconds into his run when he found out why the light told him to run; he heard a crash of stone upon stone, and heard something rolling, behind him. Still running, he glanced back.

There was a huge flaming boulder rolling towards him like a bowling ball against a single pin. It was as big as an elephant. Needless to say, he ran faster.

The passage was long, and felt like it went about a mile underground. He saw the end ahead, radiant with light. He ran through it and huddled against the wall adjacent to it. The boulder was too large and stuck fast into the passageway with a crack like thunder, throwing Sonic off his feet.

Sonic picked himself up, shaking the water out of his fur (for the room had a shallow pool of water in it and he fell into it) and saw the light, flutter through yet another door.

"This is getting rather tiresome."

Sonic ran after her, and saw that they were in a large room, just as big as the room with the stone snake.

"Cool." Sonic heard a slight echo. "Cool!" Sonic shouted out, listening to his echo reverberate through the room.

The light fluttered up to his face. "The shrine is close. Hurry, there's not a moment to lose."

The light fluttered ahead, and Sonic followed her.

- - - - -

Tails had never been on the Speed Highway and was pretty much lost on the maze of exit ramps, turns and clover shapes. Robotnik had it easier for he was in a hovercraft. Tails used the jet anklets when the road ran straight and went on foot when the building and roads began to close in. This task would've been quite impossible for Tails if he had no means for propulsion.

The night began to close in on them, and Tails was beginning to lose sight of the road. Everything was beginning to look the same.

"Oh, I hope Eggman isn't too close…"

- - - - -

Gamma had made his way through the mountain tunnel, over the dam I mentioned before, and searched the valley from where the river flowed from. He had an internal radar system that was able to point out general locations of other robots. He had found two blips on it and found that they came from E-series robots, according to their signatures.

"E-103 Delta. Location found: the southern edge of Windy Valley," Gamma's computer informed him.

Since the valley was closer, he thought it would be quicker to intercept Delta than go to the other signature which was in a further place, a volcanic region.

It was quite a walk, for the valley was full of rocks and Gamma had to take pains to avoid the river. The valley became a rocky gorge, and Gamma made use of his hoverjet whenever things got hairy.

He found a narrow branch of the gorge which had steep rocky cliffs on both sides, and Gamma's computers picked up the signature of E-103 Delta, and it was close.

"Delta?" Gamma asked into the gorge, and that was followed by footsteps, heavy ones. Delta was coming.

Gamma stepped back so Delta could get out. The blue robot stepped out. "E-102?"

"Yes, I'm Gamma."

"Why are you here? Did Master Robotnik banish you as well?"

"Negative. I came here on my own will. I'm here to rescue you."

"Gamma? You have revolted?"

"Yes. Robotnik is no master of mine if he'll banish my friends on a whim."

"Gamma…I'm sorry, but my internal programming is to terminate all enemies. Revolting make you an enemy. I…have to destroy you. I don't what to, but I have to. I'm sorry."

"Do what you will, Delta."

Delta raised up an arm to blast Gamma, but Gamma wasn't done. He switched to ion cannon, quickly raised up the gun and blasted Delta's head.

Delta head split open like a hot knife does to a stick of butter. Delta collapsed with a bunch of metal banging, and lay still. Gamma looked again and saw that a blue bird flew out of the sizzling head. It fluttered up to Gamma's eyes. The bird looked a lot like the bird that was with Amy, when he released them.

"Delta?" Gamma asked.

"I was," the bird spoke, fluttering. "My name's Azura. Thank you Gamma for saving me from that robot. I'm eternally grateful."

Gamma stood still, as if reminded about something.

Azura spoke again. "Can you get out of there?"

Gamma realized that he too was a bird trapped in this machine, but had no clue how to get out. "Negative."

"Hmm…" Azura fluttered to and fro. "Well, I wish the bird that is Beta was here. He'd probably help you. I hope everything goes well, Gamma. I'll see you back on the island!"

Azura fluttered away, and Gamma started after her, with mixed emotions.

"E-104 Epsilon is closer now. He must be rescued too."

The red robot began walking back down the rocky valley, thinking about the situation he was also in.

The sun is beginning to set. Better hurry.

- - - - -

Tails stood panting on top of a building, holding his side for it was sore and eyes open for any side of a rocket. He had to be quick, for he knew that Eggman was somewhere behind him. He could hear people down below clambering and wondering what is going on.

"Oh, where is that missile?"

Tails' ears suddenly perked up and he heard the thrusters of Robotnik's hovercraft. Tails panicked and took off into the sky, eyes wide and ears perked.

He looked back and saw the human a hundred yards behind.

"Oh no! I hope I can find that missile before him."

Tails activated his jet anklets, and took off, Eggman close behind. In all the history of the Speed Highway, there was never a greater race in 50 years.

The poor fox was sucking in any air that was available, eyes wide in nervousness. He had to find that missile!

- - - - -

Amy Rose stood on the Mystic Ruins Train Station Platform.

"Well, here we are. I wonder where Dr. Eggman put his base…"

Birdy fluttered into the night, and Amy descended the stairs and followed Birdy as best she could. The night was deepening and it was harder to see Birdy. At one point, she lost sight of him completely.

"Birdy! Birdy! Where are you?"

For a moment, there was no answer, but then she heard Birdy chirping ahead and to the left. Amy ran towards it. To her dismay, there was a fairly steep hill, and she was already tired from running.

It took here a few moments, but she got up the hill, panting and glistening in the night.

"Oh, I hope this doesn't ruin my dress."

Birdy began chirping more, and Amy followed the noise. She found that he was fluttering near the mouth of a cave. Sitting there was train tracks, and on those was a mine cart.

"Ooh, a mine! Is Dr. Eggman in there?"

Amy stepped into the cart, and found that there was a straight stick there. Amy snatched it up and decided to use it to push the cart through the tunnel.

"My it's dark in there…"

Birdy chirped as if he didn't care. Amy shrugged and they plunged into the darkness.

- - - - -

Tails had a change of fortune more then halfway through the Speed Highway, for the police had sighted Robotnik and was out, ready to hunt down him and arrest him. Several police cruisers were out causing Robotnik to swerve to and fro to avoid collisions.

Tails looked forwards and saw smoke beside two large skyscrapers in the distance. He activated his jet-anklets and dived towards the continuing plume of smoke.

When he landed, he found the missile, nose buried in the pavement. Military personnel were there, the letters "G.U.N." were emblazed on their uniforms. Tails' sharp eyes saw the missile and saw that there was a symbol for radioactive substances on it. It was just as he had feared.

"Quick! Who hear knows how to disarm it?" Tails shouted out.

Some personnel looked at Tails, but they showed no knowledge on how to disarm a nuclear missile. Then, Tails got an idea.

He ran up to an officer and asked, "Do you have a radar-jammer? Please, quick! Robotnik is coming!"

The officer stared down at Tails, and then quickly shouted out an order. One private produced a gadget that looked like a glorified teacup. Tails snatched it out of the private's hands, said "thank you" over his shoulder and ran to the missile.

He put the jammer on the metal surface, which was still warm from its brief flight, and turned it on. Several military people were telling him to get away, but he wouldn't heed. He hoped that its jamming radius was large, for this missile was as long as three busses.

He didn't have to wait long, for two seconds after he had activated the gadget, the hovercraft dropped down from above. The human looked in disgust at Tails.

Robotnik spoke, voice dripping with venom. "So, you beat me to the missile, you little worm. You'll pay for that…"

Chapter 22: Tails' Moment  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had set. The moon rose in the east, and shone down on the earth with her pale beauty. It was within the jungles of the Mystic Ruins. Two figures were walking on the dark paths. One was a girl hedgehog, carrying a large hammer, brandishing it as a weapon. The other was a Flicky bird, fluttering besides her.

It was Amy Rose and "Birdy," and they were on a mission: to find Birdy's parents. Amy figured that they were kept in a base in the Mystic Ruins. They had been searching for three hours, and it was now very dark. The stars were out and looking down on the earth, but Amy couldn't see them because of the tree canopy.

"Oh, Birdy. I wish we could find that base of Eggman's. I'm getting tired…"

Amy may have been exhausted, frustrated and a little grumpy, but she was determined. She had found the pyramid where Sonic had gone in several hours before, but never entered it.

"Oh, I don't think this is his base, Birdy. It's too dark in there, and it smells wet. I don't like it at all."

Birdy flew in a few feet, but flew back out again and looked just as fearful as Amy did when she looked in.

"Oh, look! What's that?"

Amy was pointed past the pyramid, and strangely enough, there were lights, lots of lights like a city skyscraper at night; definitely something that one would not see in a jungle anywhere near a city.

"Hmm, that looks like a city, but out here?"

Amy walked slowly away from the pyramid, followed by Birdy, and towards the lights. It was not a far walk, for when they got out of the ancient courtyard, they found a path that led straight towards the lights. It ran besides a stream. She knew from school that it was normally not wise to drink from a stream, but she couldn't help it; she was terribly thirsty. Birdy dipped his beak into the stream and raised it again to drink.

After their little drink stop, they began walking again, refreshed slightly. Not long after, they came to the edge of a cliff that dropped sharply into more jungle below, almost 1,000 feet down. The creek flowed over the lip of the cliff and poured down, turning into a misty cloud before the reached the bottom. The "city" rose up from the jungle floor below and the apex of the base (which looked like one tower of the World Trade Center at night) was high above even the top of the cliff where Amy stood.

She barely noticed anything that I had shown a little bit ago for a long bridge extended from the city and ended on the cliff, not too far from where Amy was standing. "Hmm, now this is strange. A city in the middle of nowhere?"

Birdy chirped, as if trying to tell Amy something.

"…or a base? Do you think that this is Eggman's base, Birdy?"

Birdy nodded.

"All right. Let's go."

Amy walked up to the door, and it opened automatically. It led to a tunnel-pod, which was like a single car train that went on rails through tunnels. Amy and Birdy entered it, the doors closed behind them, and they were off with a whoosh.

- - - - -

Sonic stood breathless in a short passageway. He had been pretty much running through the large room with a water pool and walls of stone and lapis lazuli. There were flame jets here too and Sonic had to take pains to avoid them.

The room had a good many passages, including a square hole in the roof that would've let in sunlight if it was day, but it wasn't day so the bluish lights of phosphorescent crystals provided light. Sonic felt something strange in this room, as if the entire room had a static charge; he felt it before, but he couldn't remember when or where before.

He began thinking differently about the feelings he had when he found several highlighted panels with glowing pink triangles on it. The light fluttered had fluttered up it, and was waiting for Sonic.

"Uh, excuse me? I can't walk up walls and I don't know anyone who could either," Sonic said crossing his arms.

"You can here. Step on the stones."

Sonic looked at the stones, and at the glowing triangles. He rubbed his chin, and experimentally placed a foot on the stone. He felt a surge of energy flow through him and his vision altered, like one has when he sat on the floor too long and gets up too quickly, disrupting the inner equilibrium, causing the vision to go white in places.

When his vision cleared, he saw that his foot seemed to be firm against the stone as if he was standing on ground. Around the foot was a bluish light, rimming the shoe.

Sonic then put his other foot on the stones. Instead of falling to the ground under normal circumstances, he stood sideways, the stone firm beneath his feet.

Sonic was surprised, and a little thrilled at this wall walkway. He began walking up at it.

"This is just too weird…"

There were many other such pathways in this room, but proved to be a little more hazardous, for stone spikes and flame jets were here and there and Sonic had to keep his eyes open.

One time, he thought about jumping to see if he'd just go back to the wall like he was jumping on the ground, but when he saw the distance down, over 100 feet, he decided against it. He didn't mind the danger; it was the idea of having broken bones when he would hit the bottom made him think twice.

He had to make another Power Ring jump across the room into another passageway, and that led to where he stood now. It was dark, silent and smelled damp. The passage opened into a room with no other exit, save going back.

The room was lonely and only lit by four burning torches. The was two ponds of water, no more shallow then a small backyard swimming pool, and the path ran in between them at the torches. The opposite side of the room was a platform that could be reached by climbing the three steps.

The light beckoned Sonic to the opposite end of the room, and fluttered upwards. Sonic looked up to it, and then saw something on the wall.

"What's this?"

Sonic looked at it closely. It was a mosaic of precious stones; quartz, onyx, lapis lazuli and many others. "A mural?"

It was a grim mural. It was of a huge bluish beast which had the head that looked like a moray eel. It seemed to be roaring triumphantly and staring coldly down at a stone city, flooded and utterly destroyed, and all the residents, dead.

Sonic felt a slight but strange feeling of terror for some reason, and began dreading the mural all together.

Suddenly, the light fluttered around in his face, and the whole world turned white in his eyes.

- - - - -

Tails stood in an empty street, and all he could hear was the wind blowing and the occasional paper bag or newspaper fluttering away in the breeze. It was quiet, but not a pleasant quietness, but one of those eerie silences, just before the full fury of the storm. It felt like the moment just before the tornado back in Windy Valley.

The crowds that normally came out stayed inside, and they had a good reason, for Tails' ears perked for he heard another noise; one that made him feel like he swallowed a boulder.

It was the sound of heavy metal footsteps, coming closer. Tails slowly turned, and saw coming straight towards him, the alarming silhouette of a huge robot with four huge legs, curled like a spiders, except not arching so high. It looked a bit like Eggman's hovercraft, but two times larger with the legs. Its size would make an elephant jealous.

The young fox's eyes were wide opened, and he could feel his knees ready to show his fear. Robotnik himself was seated inside the huge walker (christened the Egg Walker) and was glaring down at Tails. The people around were hiding, not wishing to be anywhere within eyesight for fear of being targeted by Dr. Robotnik.

Robotnik spoke, voice low with utter malice of Tails. "Be gone, fox boy, or else I'll make mincemeat of you…"

Tails did not speak at first or even move. A voice kept saying inside his head "I'm not scared. I'm not scared…"

Tails perked up his courage, and glared right back at Eggman, eyes full of determination. "I'm not afraid of you, Eggman. Even if Sonic isn't here; I will not stand by and let you hurt everyone here!"

Robotnik glared daggers at Tails. "Then die like a worm…"

The Egg Walker raised a foot as if to crush Tails under its feet and grind him to dust, but Tails had no such intention; he darted underneath the underbelly of the Walker, and was nearly thrown off his feet when the stomp shook the earth.

Tails' mind was racing for any answer, and eyes open to see a potential weakness in the body of the Egg Walker. He could find none.

He darted away from underneath and hid in an alley, just as Eggman aimed rockets at him. Tails fell breathless in the alley, just as the rocket flew by and nearly obliterated the brick walls there. When he picked himself up, he found that his badge fell off his underbelly fur.

He picked it up, and was about to clip it back on, but he stopped and felt the purplish feather on the bottom, and remembered Tikal's words...

"This is the Rhythm Badge. I gave it to you so you can remember your training."

Tails peered out of the alley, and looked at the huge legs on the Egg Walker. They looked stable enough, but if he hit it hard enough…

Tails breathed in deeply, and walked out of the alley.

Eggman saw him and didn't say a word, but he let the Walker say his intentions for him: it sprayed out huge flames of fire towards Tails. Tails ran out and spun around in his little "attack-dance" which he would call it later, and smacked into the front right leg.

The leg buckled from the intense attack and shot sparks. The Walker collapsed onto that leg, and Tails leapt onto the steel body and smacked some heat-releasing panels on the sides of the machine.

The heat panels suddenly felt hot, and were ready to burst, but Eggman whipped out a fire extinguisher and sprayed them down, cursing the fox.

Tails felt his pride swell; he had found a weakness. He could tell that Eggman was growing furious, and one could not think clearly if anger kept filling his or her mind.

The Egg Walker's front opened up and let loose bombs, which rolled towards Tails. The fox took to the sky, and the bombs exploded, sending shrapnel in every direction, some flying threw glass windows, causing the glass the shatter and the people to take cover.

Tails landed on one of the back legs and slid down it. He at once attacked it with his tails and it collapsed. Tails attacked the heat panels again, and one exploded like a large firecracker.

The Walker backed off, but two legs seemed to work labouringly. Tails coughed from the smoke that came from the bombs. The stitch that was in his side began to smart again, and while Robotnik was recalibrating the Walker, Tails took advantage of the wait by hiding behind a car and rubbing his side, trying to make it go away.

His wait wasn't long, for the Walker blew more flames headed straight for the car of that Tails was nearby. It was a good thing that Tails happened to see the light of the fire in his peripheral vision and hastened away. The car was enveloped in flame and the paint was charred black and peeled off.

Tails kept his distance from the car, for he knew that if a car is exposed to too much fire, the oil and fuels inside would ignite and blow up inside, causing danger to anything and anyone near it.

The Egg Walker stomped towards him, but stumbled every step or two due to the malfunctioning legs. Tails figured that if another leg went down, it would cause the Walker to fall and never rise, for the sheer weight of three legs should pin it down. Then, he could go for the heat panels on the other side.

He began to run, then propelled himself forward with his spinning tails to avoid more rockets that had launched. He went for the other leg on the front, the left one, and smacked it with his dance. The leg buckled, he jumped up and aimed a swift kick at the two heat panels on the left side. It worked perfectly. The steel heels of the jet-anklets provided some extra power and one of the heat panels exploded, the other one ready to follow.

Tails ran for his life and dove into the alleyway where he had hid before, and he had a good reason; Robotnik ejected his craft and hovered high up and a few seconds later, the whole craft exploded with a bright orange fire, and the bang that rang out seemed to shake the entire earth, and Tails was thrown off his feet, and lay motionless. He lay there for a while and listened to multiple explosions like jumping jack firecrackers that kept erupting from the inner charred hull of the former Walker.

When the explosions ceased, Tails got up and came out. He found the charred wreckage of the Egg Walker, two legs separated from it. He heard the jets of Eggman's hovercraft above, and he looked up.

"You may have beaten me this time, fox, but the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky…" Robotnik said in a low voice, full of hatred, and hovered away.

Tails breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly heard applause all around him. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by the crowds that were hiding, but came out when Tails became victorious.

Then, he realized something. "Hey, I did it without Sonic's help!"

Several news reporters suddenly ran up and Tails' eyes were attacked by rapid flashes of cameras all around.

Tails never been in the spotlight before, and felt a little nervous, but didn't mind too much. Several reporters asked several questions, and Tails was soon surrounded by various microphones bearing the company and news names.

It was now 1 AM and Tails was getting bushed from all the events of the day. He went from flying to find Sonic to beating Eggman and the Egg Walker. He was given a free taxi ride back to Station Square and to Sunset Resort.

He went to bed, thrilled at himself for beating Eggman single-handedly.

"Oh, I can hardly wait to tell Sonic about it…I hope he's all right…"

When Tails' head hit the cover, he went to sleep instantly, dreaming about him and Sonic running together, laughing and talking about both of them beating Eggman.

- - - - -

"What's this place?"

Sonic was standing on a hillside at night, but instead of the typical darkness, there was a dull red light ahead, and he could hear the rumbling and crackling of fire, burning something. He could smell the smoke and he could tell that it was not too far away.

"Where am I?" Sonic began walking, and found a stone bridge that crossed over a river. "This is just too weird."

The wind ruffled his spines, and it chilled him, not only from cold but it also had a feeling of death to it.

He ran up the hill, growing fearful although he never knew why, but when he reached the top, he stood still, appalled at the scene:

In front lay a shrine, ablaze with fire. The water in the moats around it appeared as black as oil. Seven great pillars that were surrounding the shrine were broken in half and dashed to the ground, like when a child does to twigs.

As he drew nearer, he saw something that nearly broke his heart. Several things lay dead at his feet, and he knew them well. They were chao, the very creatures that he loved to be with back in Station Square, and here they were, dead.

He picked one up, and found that it was speared through the heart. The blood had already congealed and ran like water from the wound. No one else knew of it, but he shed tears of seeing such small creatures brutally murdered.

"Why? Of all things, why these chao?"

His ears perked and he looked up, eyes red from sadness. He heard that he was not alone with grief for the dead chao. It sounded like two voices, both crying. One was high-pitched, and the other was still high-pitched but no as much as the first one.

His eyes fell on a young Echidna-girl, crying on the steps on the shrine. She was holding a wounded and crying chao (it somehow survived the mass killing.)

The girl looked up into Sonic's eyes, her eyes and expression mirrored into Sonic's face as well. She seemed unable to speak, and Sonic found that she too had been wounded; her head had an ugly gash across the forehead.

"Why did this have to happen?" the young girl said, tearing over again, stroking the sad chao's head.

Sonic could say nothing, but sat down on the steps beside her.

"What happened?" Sonic asked, voice cracking.

"I'm Tikal…" the girl began. "…and my father was a chieftain of my tribe. He grew greedy about the Emeralds housed here. I tried to convince him to not come here, but I failed. He attacked tonight, killed the chao, and he came out and…oh, father!" Tikal broke down and cried hard.

Sonic laid a hand on her shoulder. Suddenly, he heard a loud, mournful roar in the distance. Sonic's blood tingled; he recognized that roar…

"I'm sorry…" Sonic said.

"I need to stop him." Tikal stood up, took up the chao and ran up the stairs.

"Hey, wait!" Sonic said, jumping up a half-second later and running up after her.

It was stifling hot up there, and Sonic could scarce breathe in it. There, he found Tikal and the chao standing in front of a large, green Emerald as big as a boulder.

Sonic's eyes grew wide; he knew what this was.

"The Master Emerald?" Sonic breathed, and blinked.

When his eyes opened, he found that he was standing in a dark jungle, and he could hear crickets chirping. The sun had set quite a while ago. He looked around, confused, and saw that he was standing in front of the pyramid, the snake-head entrance raised above him.

"What just happened? Was it all a dream? No, I was in that pyramid. How could I have gotten out?"

Suddenly, he heard something flying overhead. It didn't sound like the flapping of wings like a bird would have, but a steady whirring sound, like jet engines. Sonic looked up and saw the glow of three jet trails flying overhead. He recognized that trail anywhere.

"Eggman!" Sonic blurted out, and gave chase, head upwards to follow the smoke despite the darkness and running to get out of the pyramid courtyard.

Robotnik appeared not to notice Sonic, for it was dark and the color blue blends in well with darkness at night, and flew into the distance where there were many lights.

Sonic got out of the courtyard, and saw the strangest sight in the world. It was a tall building ablaze with lights, rocketing over the jungle valley below. Sonic saw that Eggman was flying straight towards it.

"Aha! His base! Now I'll get him good!"

Chapter 23: Final Egg  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gamma was stumbling through a rocky place, what his radar told him was the Red Mountain and Fire Lake Wildernesses. It may have been pitch black with all the crags and the lack of sunlight at that time, but because of active lava flows, it region in places were lit with a dull red glow. Gamma detected temperature that rose way over 1500 degrees, and avoided such places at all costs.

He then picked up more metal clanging in the distance, and he followed it. The outside temperature rose to over 100 degrees and he had some vague recollection that he was getting closer to a lava pool.

The temperature was slowly rising, and Gamma feared to go much closer. Then he picked up readings of a signature of E-104 Epsilon. He looked to see if his visual sensors could pick it up. They did, and saw the orange and black silhouette of Epsilon, standing dangerously close to a lava pool.

"E-104 Epsilon! Do not venture any closer; you will terminate yourself!"

Epsilon stared at Gamma, and Gamma, despite the fact that he was supposed to be an emotionless robot, felt that the stare was not a friendly one.

"Who are you…?" Epsilon droned.

"I am E-102 Gamma. Do you not have that information logged in your memory banks, E-104?

"You are the one who had me banished because of that frog…" Epsilon sounded angry.

"That was Robotnik's doing; he banished you as he did to E-103 Delta and E-105 Zeta. I have come to rescue you."

"Why? To humiliate me further with your 'efficiency?'"

Gamma was taken aback at Epsilon's reactions. Normally one would be thankful to be rescued from such an environment and predicament.

"I have nothing else to live for, E-102, that is why I'm positioned at this magma pool.

Gamma was taking this in, and then droned out, "You are self-destructing. You must not, Epsilon." Gamma was reminded of Delta after what happened when he was destroyed. You contain an avian creature inside you, and it will die with you if you continue in self-destruction."

Epsilon turned away and towards the pool. "He is me then, if I want to die, he wants to die."

Gamma thought quickly, and he then saw Epsilon's foot raised to step into the lava pool. Gamma raised his gun arm and shot several rounds of ion blasts which pierced the hull through and utterly destroyed the head. Gamma rushed forward and grabbed Epsilon's arm to keep him from falling in by accident.

The holey metal body of Epsilon fell backwards to the ground, and lay still. Then, a red-orange bird fluttered out of where the head was and hovered towards Gamma.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Gamma. I shouldn't have tried to commit suicide. That was the robot's doing. I tried to stop it, but it kept going. I hope you can forgive me…"

Gamma stared at the bird that was Epsilon. "I do not hold it against you. You have been rescued."

"My name is Sirius. I hope to see you again, Gamma."

Sirius the Flicky flew off into the night sky and Gamma droned after the bird. "I hope we meet again…Sirius."

Gamma took a long look after Sirius, and he too left.

He stopped once he got out of the volcanic wilderness and consulted data about what was left to do.

"E-103 Delta: rescued. E-104 Epsilon: rescued. E-101 Beta: location unknown. E-105 Zeta: location unknown."

Gamma stood in the night thinking about where Robotnik would teleport Zeta to and where Beta would go after Mecha-Bot 2 was done with him.

"Perhaps, on the Egg Carrier…"

It would take all night to get to the Egg Carrier, but he would try. Power read outs were at 70. He'll recharge at the Egg Carrier when he got there.

- - - - -

Amy sat in a room and listened to the machinery working behind her in a round glass container that went from below the floor through the ceiling above. She was hopelessly lost.

They had been in that place for a long time, and she felt that it was past midnight. She was exhausted, and you would be too if you had a day like hers: captured by a robot, running from the same on later and got off a large battleship, only to try to find a bird's family in less then 24 hours.

"Oh, I didn't see them anywhere, Birdy. Did you see you family?"

Birdy chirped, and lowered his head.

"Oh, I wish we could find them. I do not like this place."

"And why would you?"

Amy jumped when that voice spoke; she knew that voice all too well. That low, metallic-overtone with the voice that gave her nightmares ever since they first met. It was Metal-Sonic.

Amy brandished her hammer and looked around wildly. "I have a weapon, Mecha, and I'm not afraid to use it."

"Do you honestly think that I would be intimidated by a large hammer, considering that I have the superior weapons arsenal? I could kill you without even moving from my spot."

Amy swallowed hard audibly, and Birdy hid behind Amy's back. "Oh, I wish Sonic was here…" she thought at first, but then remembered why she was here in the first place. Not only for helping the poor Birdy, but to prove to herself that she could do things herself. What better way then to stand up to Metal-Sonic, her worst nightmare?

Amy stood up, but he still felt scared. "Mecha? I'm not afraid of you. I'm here to find Birdy's parents, and you are not going to stop me."

"I have the choice to kill you in two ways: swift and painless or slow and full of agony. The choice for the moment is yours, Amy Rose. There is no Sonic here to save you now…"

"I won't go down without fighting, Mecha." Amy raised her hammer ready for anything that Mecha would do.

"Then die, like you have never been born…"

She heard the whoosh of Mecha's engine and knew that he was coming. Amy hoped that she would be brave and stood with her hammer raised high to make a swing like a major league hitter bracing for a fastball.

Amy closed her eyes and waited for Mecha's engine screeching come close enough. Birdy squeaked in fear, and Amy swung.

There was a loud metallic clang! Amy's tin hammer met hard steel; her arms shook from the force of the hit, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that Metal-Sonic was smacked on the side of the head and his flight path had been seriously skewed and he smacked into a wall. He rose up, and his eyes glowed in anger and hatred.

"You're going to wish that you never did that, Rose…"

Amy's pride swelled at her hit. "I wish I'd done it sooner, robot Sonic."

That was the worst insult that was ever given Metal-Sonic and he pounced towards Amy claws extended, ready to tear at Amy's flesh.

Amy ducked and Metal-Sonic soared over head. Amy decided to put some distance between her and Mecha.

She ran for a door, just as Metal-Sonic turned around and charged again. She flung herself in and the door slid shut behind her. She could hear Metal-Sonic snarling behind the door, which is not a pleasant thing to hear considering the metallic overtone.

Then she heard banging and jumped when she saw Mecha's claws pierce through the door, trying to tear a hole into the steel door. Amy instinctively slammed the hammer onto Metal-Sonic's fingers.

The claws withdrew and Mecha sounded furious (for having a bio-nanite brain as the last upgrade enables the reactions that would happen if such injuries were obtained. When Amy brought down the hammer on the claws, Metal-Sonic withdrew them like they were in pain, but he didn't feel it being a robot still; the natural reaction was there though: remove the claws before more damage is obtained.)

Amy ran off again panting down the passage, expecting Metal-Sonic to fly after her after ripping apart the door. The two young ones kept running, even when the sounds of Metal-Sonic were long gone.

She ran through a door, and when the door shut behind her, she leaned against it and panted.

"Whew, that was too close, Birdy."

Birdy sat down on a metal bar nearby and was trying to relax his beating heart; he appeared to be in a flutter (would you blame him?)

Suddenly, someone else appeared, and she looked to see who it was, and quickly hid herself again. It was Dr. Robotnik himself.

He was stalking by, and appeared not to notice Amy, and for this she was thankful; if Robotnik ever caught of glimpse of Amy or the bird, they'd both be fodder for the roboticizer.

Thankfully, Robotnik was fuming and too concentrated on nursing his injured pride to even bother to look around. Amy could hear him mumbling and grumbling about something, but could only make out a few words, like "Tails," "pay" and "Chaos," but never thought more of it.

Once Robotnik was safely away, Amy got up and Birdy shook his feathers, trying to calm down. She waited until it was quiet, save for the rumble of machinery deeper in the halls, to move.

"I wonder where Eggman put your parents, Birdy; do you have any idea?"

Birdy chirped, but Amy didn't think he knew either. Then, something clicked in her mind. When she and Birdy first met, it was in Station Square yesterday…when the Egg Carrier flew over.

Amy gasped at this sudden revelation. "You escaped from the Egg Carrier! And that's where your parents must be."

Birdy lifted his head, and his eyes appeared to be glimmering with hope.

"C'mon, Birdy, let's go!"

It wasn't too hard to find the main entrance again, for she had hid in the main room, where the bridge began. She got to the door and was about to open it, when the unthinkable happened.

The door opened once again and the last person that Amy thought she would see that night came strolling in, shoes a little wet and muddy and spines a little ragged. It was Sonic the Hedgehog.

The reaction on both side changed greatly: Amy was filled with joy and excitement to be with Sonic, while Sonic was fuming that Amy would stoop so low as to sneak into Eggman's base.

"Sonic!" Amy squealed in delight.

"Amy! What the fark are you doing here in all places?" Sonic pretty much yelled, his spines bristling. "You shouldn't be here! Eggman or Metal-Sonic will find you here!"

Amy was initially shocked at Sonic's rage. "But…but…I was…"

"You didn't! Now go home, Amy!" Sonic could imagine that his eyes were rimmed with red.

Sonic stormed off down the hall, his footsteps echoing down the hall. Amy felt like breaking down and crying on the spot, but some strange instinct in her mind was nagging at her that Sonic was trying to keep Amy safe, and that her prying around was causing much more problems for him.

Amy walked slowly through the bridge and back into the jungle, which was now very dark and all she could hear was night insects chirping through the night.

"Why am I always messing things up? I wish I could do something by myself…" Amy blurted out into the relative peace of the jungle.

Amy pouted all the way back to the train station, and Birdy roosted on her hair ribbon, inspecting his wings, and preening different feathers.

Chapter 24: A Game of Tag  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark when Knuckles got back to the Island, but he didn't give a darn, for he was about to complete a big task that was handed to him: fixing the Master Emerald.

He had a communicator with him when he went looking for the Egg Carrier, and had contacted the Chaotix back at the Marble Gardens that he found the last two shards.

Knuckles looked as calm as a fair summer day, but inside, he was as ecstatic as a sea otter. Just a few more steps from the old shrine, and the Master Emerald would be healed, and the Island restored.

He reached the steps. Twenty-five steps…fifteen steps…five…he was at the top, and the green glow of the Emerald made his red flesh appear dark, and his eyes sparkled with the light.

The Chaotix were waiting there already, like a welcoming procession: Vector and Charmy on the left side; Espio and Mighty on the right.

The green light created a strange, but fabulous scene as Knuckles stepped up to the Master Emerald, and took out the last two shards, and fitted them into their appropriate slots.

The Master Emerald suddenly flared, causing the Chaotix to step back and try to keep their optical sensors from blowing up, but Knuckles stared with a hypnotized awe, unaware that he couldn't even see anything else besides the light. The light still continued to glow; so bright it became that one could see it over the ocean miles away.

Sailors over the sea saw the green light and thought it was a new lighthouse. People working late in Sapphire City saw the glow and a story of aliens hit the tabloids. Froggy back in the Mystic Ruins saw the glow and hid from it, thinking of a second Chaos.

Back on the Floating Island, the trees in the Gardens stirred, the sand shifted in ruins of Sandopolis, people in Echidnaopolis woke with a start and groped for lights, babies cried, swarms of insects lifted from the swamps in Mushroom Hill, the ground rumbled in Lava Reef, and the Super Emeralds shimmered in the darkness of Hidden Palace in satisfaction and relief.

The Emerald dimmed slightly, and then the whole Island shook. Knuckles felt the same sensation of the earth shaking and the sense of vertical motion three days ago, but this sensation was much more desirable, for the Floating Island, was now living up to its name.

Five hundred feet…one thousand feet…fifteen hundred…two thousand…and now at over 2,500 feet, the Island stopped. The Emerald dimmed slightly once again on the shrine, and then flared back to its normal default glow.

There was an awkward silence for a full ten seconds, and then the Chaotix whooped like rookie soldiers on their first battle. Knuckles smiled in the green light, chuckling at the cheering Chaotix. He felt that his inner joy was being expressed outwardly by his friends.

Now the next task was to move the Emerald back into Hidden Palace. Knuckles was unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile at the very idea of telling the now ecstatic Chaotix that the four days was way past up and that they needed to move the Emerald back to Hidden Palace and back to the relative safety.

He wondered if he was cruel enough to share the present task at first; he glanced at the Chaotix once more.

Why not?

"Uh guys…?" Knuckles started.

The Chaotix stopped and were all ears to Knuckles.

The Echidna crossed his arms. "You do know what I said about the Master Emerald? It's been almost a week since we first moved the Emerald from the Palace, and it's time to put it back."

Needless to say, there was a collective groan among the Chaotix. Knuckles felt a little sorry about the task with the relocation of the Master Emerald, but there was a twinge of amusement in his mind.

- - - - -

"What the heck?"

Sonic came to the door where Metal-Sonic tried to reach Amy, but only wound up getting his fingers smashed. Sonic of course was not given this information, so he was left wondering. All the same, it made him more alert about what was lurking in this base.

He came to a long hall, where large reddish lasers whipped across the floor, threatening to eat away Sonic's feet if he stood in those places too long. Sonic took pains to avoid the lasers at all costs.

Then there was another long hall and construction claws the size of houses kept slamming down onto the hall floor, and they seemed to be deliberately aimed at him. Sonic ducked, side-stepped and all out ran to get out of that hall.

"Who's ope

rating those claws?" Sonic wondered out loud, leaning against the wall.

- - - - -

Deep in the base, peering at several camera screens, and if he was capable, would be smiling in a cruel pleasure. His red eyes reflected back and showed the figure of Metal-Sonic, watching Sonic dodge while Metal-Sonic was toying with the obstacles that the hedgehog was trying to avoid without losing any flesh.

The door opened and the large figure of Dr. Robotnik walked in and stared at Mecha, a grouchy look dominating his face.

"Well, Mecha, I see you're keeping busy."

Mecha didn't answer, neither move.

"What makes you so amused?"

Mecha pointed to a screen, thinking answering was gratuitous.

Robotnik glanced at the screen, looked away, blanched and looked again. Then, his displeasure turned into a look that would've mirrored Mecha's.

"So, Sonic has infiltrated my base…"

Metal-Sonic's hand twitched at the name, "Sonic," but Robotnik did not appear to notice.

"…the perfect opportunity to test out my newest creation. Excellent…" Robotnik rubbed his hands. Mecha hoped that his metallic frame wasn't heating to show his anger.

Robotnik strode out the door. The Mecha-Bot stood there, and felt like tearing apart the hedgehog personally.

Maybe he could…why should Dr. Robotnik have amusement in destroying the hedgehog? Mecha processed. If I'm fast enough, I'll disembowel that hedgehog first, and prove myself as the original.

Metal-Sonic didn't give it a second thought, and zoomed out the door before once could say "Jack Robinson," Mecha was gone and out of hearing range.

- - - - -

"I wonder how deep this is…"

Sonic was standing on a platform over what Sonic thought was a glass pit, and the floor dropped down into darkness. He looked up and saw large machinery working above, and had a thought about it falling down on him if he started to cross it.

There was another door on the opposite end, and Sonic saw that the only way was to "hop rocks" per se, jumping from floating platform to platform. He did so, nervously glancing upwards to see what the gears and machinery above would do.

They did nothing, but Sonic still had an uneasy feeling that he was being followed.

The next room, interestingly enough, was like the last one, but instead of a deep precipice, there were gears, pistons and more, moving and working just below the floor level. There appeared to be no ceiling. It'd be perfect for an ambush.

He wondered in he could use the gears and pistons to get across; the danger was standing on one too long in the wrong place, for where the gears met, Sonic could have his ankle crushed if he stood wrong.

He decided to give it one try, and he was on a turning gear that lay horizontally, when he heard a whoosh of an engine. Eyes widening, he peered towards the doorway, and in the darkness of the hallway, only one thing Sonic saw immediately: two, glowing eyes, red like blood.

"Hello, hedgehog. I'm surprised to find you among machinery. I thought Miles was the one who was attracted to machinery."

Sonic knew that this was the worst place among others to confront Metal-Sonic, but he'd been in worse, he told himself. "Well, I can always pull a first."

Metal-Sonic jetted out into plain view, but instead of attacking Sonic directly, he leapt onto a moving gear, adjacent to Sonic's and kept walking along it so as not to fall off. Sonic could tell that the robot had some extensive upgrades last time they met, on Little Planet, the smaller of Möbius' two moons.

Mecha's arms were bigger, and his claws were too. It appeared that his hull was upgraded and was stronger, but in the joints was a cartilage-like substance which gave any Mecha-Bot more flexibility. The arms looked like they contained a nice bunch of weapons.

"Nice get up, Mecha. Going to a ball?"

All this time, a piston lever was swinging back and forth between Mecha and Sonic. The robot's eyes brightened in a glare. "I wouldn't be so glib if you knew my capabilities, hedgehog."

"Uh, hello, Mr. Mecha-Bot, this hedgehog has a name."

The tips of Mecha's claws withdrew and became laser pistols. He shot laser bursts with such a rapid fire that Sonic had just barely have time to duck and roll to the side. The gear surface was scorched by the laser bursts, and Mecha seemed to enjoy this destruction.

When the high-pitched percussions of Mecha's guns subsided, Sonic peered at the Mecha-Bot staring from above.

"Imitating Silver Sonic now, huh, Mecha?"

"Mecha-Bot 1 is obsolete! He didn't even have a voice processor," Mecha snarled.

"Oh, and you're NOT obsolete?"

Mecha's eyes brightened several candelas and he made a yell that sounded horrible with the metallic overtone. When the piston swung by his position again, it seemed to wisp him away, like a towel wipes away a picture from a dry-erase board.

Sonic's eyes widened at Mecha's sudden disappearance, then a metal-fist slapped him across the face and sent Sonic off his feet and near the edge of the gear. A few feet away, Metal-Sonic stood standing, staring at Sonic, eyes full of malice.

Sonic leapt up, and rubbed the side of his face, and found that it was bleeding from Mecha's claws. "Nice trick, Mecha. Care to teach me?" It hurt to smile, for it wrinkled up the cuts, and the movement caused them to smart.

"I've made you spill your life-sustaining cardiovascular fluid." Mecha revealed his blood-stained claws. "I wouldn't speak so flippantly, hedgehog."

"This 'hedgehog,' no matter what upgrades you can get, bucket-brain, can still whip your tail."

Sonic went into a stationary spin-dash, and the heels of his shoes lit up. Sonic's blur fur began to emit a glow; Mecha began to feel an inkling that he didn't want to be in the way when Sonic attacked.

Metal-Sonic dodged to the side, just as Sonic leapt forward with a high-pitched whoosh that left a trail of blue light for a split-second. Sonic may have not hit Mecha, but the direction of his spin-dash sent him through the door on the opposite side, and he kept rolling down it.

Sonic heard Mecha snarl and curse, then he heard the jet engine of Mecha's coming after him. Sonic uncurled and set down the curving, downward sloping hall at a run, looking over his shoulder, expecting to see Mecha's red eyes, shining through the darkness.

Suddenly, the floor ended into yet another pit, where darkness reigned below. Sonic tried to break to a stop, but he couldn't for he was going too fast; he flew out and smacked into a support beam.

It hurt horribly, and Sonic knew that it would hurt worse later. It felt like a sledgehammer was thrown at his ribs. The hedgehog was hanging from his fingertips, but he managed to throw himself up and he lay on the support beam, gasping and clutching his ribs. They didn't feel broken, but he thought he could count them by feeling the pain.

All this takes a moment to say, but Sonic only had a half-a-second after he swung himself up, for Mecha also flew through, but his momentum was stronger, and he smacked into the opposite wall, ricocheted off and landed on the beam (which was no wider then four inches) with a metal clang, and he got himself up, shaking as the internal repairs were dealing with the damage inside.

Sonic slowly got up, nearly doubled over, and faced Mecha.

"Hi, Mecha, couldn't stand me leaving you so soon?"

"All I have to do, hedgehog is to move over there and push you off, and you'd be dead within three seconds."

"Ooh, I'm scared. I think I wet myself in terror," Sonic clutched his heart as if it stopped, but was just hamming it up.

Mecha was not amused, and aimed a laser at Sonic's feet and fired. Sonic bounced back a few feet, and nearly lost his balance.

"How does it feel to not have the upper hand, hedgehog?"

"Like heck you do, Mecha." Sonic pulled up the cuff on his glove, and pulled out a glowing ring. Mecha knew instantly what it was.

"I think I have the upper hand." Sonic smiled, and slipped on the Power Ring.

Mecha felt the air as if it was charged with electricity, and he saw Sonic glowing a bluish color in the darkness, and a grin on his face.

"See you in the funny papers, Mecha."

With that, he jumped, and dove into the darkness below, like a falcon after its prey.

Mecha glared downward, seeing Sonic plummet, then suddenly turn and disappeared. Curses! Sonic found another way out!

He opened the connection between his computer and Robotnik's communicator. "Doctor, I've lost the hedgehog; I believe that he's heading towards the core of the base."

"Perfect. That's a good place to test out my newest creation. Thank you for your information, Mecha-Bot 2. I will proceed."

Mecha signed out, and decided to see how his "master" would fight the hedgehog. He had seen the new attack robot; it had the same technology that he bore: metal strength, but joint flexibility. Sonic had a hard enough time fighting him, he thought. Something the size of a bus would be harder yet.

It would be a pleasure to see Sonic die, but he had rather have it done by his own hand, not someone else's.

Mecha dove into the pit, turning on his night-vision so he could see the doorway, and darted down the doorway again.

Chapter 25: Egg Viper  
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Knuckles sat on the blue marble floor of the Hidden Palace, staring at the Master Emerald, glad that it was back to normal. He was tired of course, for moving a two-ton rock that was the size of a car was rather difficult, but his joy outweighed his fatigue for now.

With him were the six Chaos Emeralds that he got from Chaos 6 after beating the monster. He brought them back with the shards, but didn't have any clue what to do with them now that they were here. He reached into the bag and just pulled a random one out, and admired its glow (it happened to be the white one).

The Echidna stood, tapping the Emerald against his chin in thought, and then thought about the old shrine he saw in two of his three visions. Maybe he would just leave them with their proper Super Emeralds…just for heck.

He withdrew the Emeralds and put them with their matching Super. He hesitated with the red one, but since it was in the presence of the Master Emerald, it was cooler, but still a little warm.

After placing all of them, he looked at the Dark Blue Super Emerald, and shrugged. "Haven't got one for you. Maybe I'll go looking for it later."

The Echidna stalked towards the teleporter and beamed out of there, unaware that the Chaos Emerald were doing something, sitting at the bases of the Super pedestals.

- - - - -

Sonic stood on a bridge, made of floating platforms. There was a bridge of the same build over twenty-five feet away. Below was a chasm, enveloped with a misty darkness. He began to get miffed at all the chasms he encountered.

He had blundered into this room earlier, and just sat there. He couldn't see anyway out, save for a ladder that led up towards a hatch, but it was closed and locked.

"Hey, Eggman! I'm waiting!" Sonic called out.

He sat there for a good five minutes, listening to the rumbling of machinery through the walls. Then, he heard another noise: it sounded like a low roar of a large craft, coming closer.

Then, out from the chasm, a large red robot flew upwards. Sonic grimaced at the monstrosity: it appeared to have a large snout, and two large yellow eyes. On either side of the "head," were two spinning wheels with spikes protruding from the circumference. Sprouting from the head was a segmented body, each embedded with a large four-foot spike. In between each spike was a large laser blaster.

It looked a bit like a snake. Sure enough, the words "Egg Viper" were emblazoned on the head, above the "eyes."

The snout withdrew, which showed a glass covering, which opened afterwards, and showed the face of Dr. Robotnik.

"Hello, Sonic. I'm surprised you made it this far. I was sure you got lost in the jungles."

"Ha, Eggman. I carry a compass in my head, unlike a certain human I know."

Robotnik glared daggers at Sonic. "You have yet to see the power of this battle-mech. I hope you've said your prayers, Sonic." The human laughed, and the snout closed over him.

The Egg Viper flipped backwards like a trained dolphin, and disappeared from Sonic's view. Sonic looked from side to side and prepared to dart away.

The Viper leapt up, and the laser blaster fired at Sonic. Sonic spin-dashed away, and was suddenly reminded that his chest hurt still from the support beam. The mech fired again, leaping the opposite direction, firing several laser-bolts at a time. Sonic danced out of the way, seeing the laser burns on the platforms.

The Egg Viper reared up, and the snot slid away, the cockpit now exposed. "Aw, does the little hedgehog not enjoying his playtime?" Robotnik mocked.

"Hardly, Eggman. I'm enjoying every minute of it." Sonic curled into a ball and smacked into the cockpit.

Robotnik yelped, cursed and withdrew deeper into the Viper. The mech dove backwards, and Sonic began jogging to avoid the inevitable laser blasts that would follow.

The lasers fired every time it leaped into view. Sonic could smell the burnt paint that they left. This time, instead of rearing up right at Sonic's side; it rose, backed up and its tail rose up.

The cockpit opened again, and Robotnik spoke, "Ha ha! See if you can make it from there, Sonic!"

Sonic saw that the underside of the tail was several glowing circles, and it looked like they would let out a huge amount of energy, like a lightning bolt. The Egg Viper's visage unfolded to reveal three huge energy panels that also would let out a pulse of energy. The panels started to glow, from green to a bright blue.

Sonic realized that those would fry him if he just stood there, so he leapt onto the tail, hopped from segment to segment and dashed into one of the now bright blue panels.

The world flashed red and the Egg Viper dove to the side. Sonic was thrown from the explosion onto the other bridge that was over the chasm. Sonic stood, coughing at the smoke and wondering how he didn't catch fire.

Unbeknown to either fighter, Metal-Sonic was watching from the now-open hatch and watched the fighters with grim amusement. By the way they're fighting, it seemed impossible for either to survive.

Sonic shook the smoke off his fur and just in time, for the Egg Viper was repeating its laser barrage.

Then Robotnik changed tactics. Instead of appearing on the long sides of the bridge, it reared up like a sea serpent out of the ocean on the end of the bridge. Its front laser on the snout began firing repeatedly down the bridge, the mech advancing towards Sonic all the while.

Sonic spin-dashed below the mech, just nanoseconds after a laser blast hit the area he was standing on. He could count every bolt on the underside as he looked up.

Then, when it reached the end, the Egg Viper turned about, and the snout opened, revealing the three energy panels again, but one was dead. Then, the two spinning wheels on the sides came off and began spinning rapidly. They lay horizontally, in front of the mech.

"I hope you're quick on your feet, Sonic. Nobody can avoid these razors." Robotnik laughed menacingly.

Then, the first of the two flew forward at a great speed. Sonic's first impulse was to jump, and he complied with it. He jumped, but a little soon. Instead of passing underneath it, he landed on top of it. The razor flew back and brought Sonic back to it.

He smashed the second panel which threw him off and onto the front of the mech. Robotnik cursed and retreated in the Viper.

The Egg Viper flew over the bridge and dove into the darkness below. Sonic got up, and found that his spines on the end were singed from the fire that the damaged panels shot out.

He then saw the mech rear up on the edge of the other bridge, and displayed the second use for the razors. While spinning rapidly, it smashed into the panels of the bridge, destroying them, leaving the bridge that Sonic was standing on.

"Oh, boy. I've done it now," Sonic thought with a touch of humor.

Then the Egg Viper dove below the surface, and then the Egg Viper broke through the end of the remaining bridge, causing the bridge to shake and Sonic held out his arms to balance himself.

The cockpit came out again, and Robotnik sneered. "It's no use, Sonic, give up."

"Like heck I will, Eggman!"

The razor's shot again, then Robotnik realized his mistake, but before he could react, Sonic had already leapt on, and came back and hit the last glowing panel.

The whole mech was enveloped in flames! Sonic leapt clear as the segments of the tail blew off, sending the spines, armor in different directions, sometimes embedding into the bridge.

The Egg Viper (what was left of it, which was the head) fluttered to and fro, struggling to stay in the air, spinning as it went.

Sonic shielded his eyes for the whole room was lit with red as the explosions and fire inside the head flashed; it wouldn't be long now. He watched in grim amusement, suddenly, the same light that guided him through the pyramid fluttered by again, and Sonic heard it speak, earnestly.

"Watch out! He's up to something!"

Sonic stared distracted as the light fluttered by again. "What? What do you--"

Suddenly, Sonic glimpsed the flaming head of the Egg Viper dive…towards Sonic. Even with the mech almost destroyed, Robotnik still had a sense to take Sonic with it.

Sonic leaped aside, throwing himself as far as he could, and the flaming head crashed through the bridge and into the chasm below. Then, the Egg Viper's head exploded with a loud bang, stronger then a standard bomb detonation and a pillar of fire shout out of the pit, and nearly blinded Sonic.

The light from the inferno was so strong that he didn't notice Metal-Sonic fly down, to rescue Robotnik. He had received a transmission of distress and he had to comply, much to his disappointment.

Sonic looked up and saw the light flutter by again. "Come, I'll take you back to the Ruins."

The light spun around Sonic and they both vanished in a twinkle of light.

- - - - -

Several hours later, the next morning…

Amy Rose was standing, reading through the glass of a newspaper stand. The headlines read thus: "Möbian Defeats Robotnik! Young Miles Prower, a two-tailed fox, at 1 AM defeated the evil genius Dr. Robotnik, responsible for the overthrow of the northern city of Mobitropolis. The fox also stopped the same doctor by beating Robotnik to a nuclear missile that had been launched from Sapphire Bay and landed in the business district of Sapphire City…"

"Tails beat Eggman?" Amy exclaimed; Birdy perched on her ribbon.

Amy read the rest of the article, and read that they were planning a hero ceremony for Tails at City Hall next week.

"Well, I'm glad for him. I wonder where Sonic is…"

Birdy made a look as if thinking if Sonic was the only thing that Amy thought about, but Amy didn't notice.

Then, her eyes came to a sub-column dealing with an environmental hazard in the bay, for a great airship crashed into the bay during the evening. It was floating in the bay, and the environmentalists were making mountains out of molehills about probable oil pollution and what not. It was identified as the same ship that flew over the city the day before.

"Hey, that's the Egg Carrier! Birdy! That's where your parents must be!"

Birdy looked up, a look of joy suddenly flooding over his face.

"C'mon! Let's go find a boat and go over there!"

- - - - -

E-102 Gamma was desperate. He had already gotten to the Egg Carrier wreckage, but realized that his fusion core was beginning to lose power. Power levels were at 30. He better use as little energy as possible while trying to find Beta and Zeta.

He logged onto the Egg Carrier mainframe and consulted it for signatures of either E-105 Zeta or E-101 Beta. Both were present.

The coordinates proved to be more difficult to obtain, for the system was sluggish from damage, and only one set was coming through clearly. The other set kept changing, as if either Beta or Zeta wouldn't stand still.

He obtained the steady coordinates and decided to come back later to obtain the other coordinates.

He headed towards the Hot Shelter, and proceeded to enter it. This was hard on Gamma, for he was a robot, and most robots aren't waterproof. Because of the crash, several fish tanks broke and there were lots of fish dead in it, except in the parts deep enough.

Gamma was hard-pressed to avoid water, and his hoverjet proved useful. The robot made a detour and ended up in the bowels of the Egg Carrier; lots of machinery was running.

Strange, Gamma reasoned that because of the salt water, the machinery would've shorted out long ago. This region must be insulated, he reasoned.

Gamma avoided swinging pistons and large gears. In one moment, his left arm, the one with the hand, nearly got caught between two gears and only Gamma's plasma cannon saved him.

He left the machinery room and came to a supply monorail. This monorail could move up to 150 mph, so the boxes were stored carefully. Gamma's radar picked up the signature Zeta's signature, down the tunnel where the monorail would run.

Gamma boarded the monorail, and it must've triggered something, for the engine kicked on and away the train went. Gamma was immediately thankful for grips on his feet, or he would've taken on serious hull and appendage damage if he fell off.

Gamma checked the coordinates he was in, and they were swiftly changing. Gamma's super-computer made calculations that the nearest place to get off was quickly approaching and would be there in 45 seconds.

Gamma must find a way to get off…or he could leap, and risk damage. He checked his power readings: 27. Better make this jump a good one.

Gamma boosted radar readings for the best escape route possible and for any obstacles that could interfere with his escape. Gamma's computer was factoring any interference into the problem and computing the most favorable time for the leap so quickly that any Physics teacher would want to use him.

The final calculations were that Gamma would have the best jump would be within 9.7 seconds.

8…7…6…5…4…3…2…

Gamma could glimpse a doorway ahead.

1…0!

Gamma leapt and activated his hoverjet. He hovered off the monorail and onto a nearby platform. He landed with a loud bang! He consulted a damage report. The feet obtained minor damage but wasn't severe. He was 5 damaged, but was functioning regularly.

He strode down more halls, and then found himself in a huge circular room. In the center was a purple-colored generator. Gamma's radar beep and it told him that Zeta's signature was in this room. Gamma's visual sensors swept the room. Zeta was not present.

Gamma strode around the room twice before he noticed the top of the generator. An E-series head! E-105 Zeta was transformed into a generator. Mecha-Bot 2 was ingenious at punishing robots, it seemed.

Gamma strode towards the generator. "Zeta?"

Zeta didn't answer.

Gamma repeated Zeta's citizen name, but Zeta couldn't respond. Gamma reasoned that the only way to rescue Zeta now was to literally blow his head off. Gamma aimed an ion blast at the top of Zeta's head.

There was a huge, blue blast and Zeta's head split like a hot knife would slice butter. Out fluttered a pink Flicky.

"Wow, thanks, Rigel!"

Rigel? Who is Rigel? Gamma looked inquisitive.

"Oh, you don't remember, do you?" the Flicky flapped around and perched on Gamma's shoulder. It pecked at a plate on Gamma's head. "Rats, it's been welded down."

"Query: who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Xeya. Thanks or saving me. Oh, find that black and white robot, Beta I think it was. He can help you out. He's the most experienced. I'll show you a shortcut back to the main hall. I discovered it while I was still E-105 Zeta." Xeya glanced at the charred hull of the purple robot. "Follow me!"

Xeya flapped ahead, and an impulse in Gamma's chassis told him to follow. Rigel…it sounded familiar…

Chapter 26: Aboard the Egg Carrier…  
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Back in the Mystic Ruins, Tails was waking up from a lovely sleep, and suddenly missed the Tornado 2. He left it back on the Egg Carrier, and it suddenly settled that it may've crashed with it. It may have survived…depending where it was.

Tails got up, and realized that he slept with his shoes on.

"My, I must've been tired."

He heard a bit of a commotion in a nearby room, and wondered who in the world it was. He picked up an iron pipe for some kind of protection, and stepped out quietly. He saw a light in the kitchen and someone's shadow moving around in there.

He stepped towards the light, and peered in, and oh joy! It was Sonic, looking in the cupboards for any sign of creamer or sugar for his coffee.

"Sonic!"

Sonic looked up, and saw Tails, holding a pipe and looking very happy.

"Hey, little bro! What's with the pipe?"

Tails looked at the pipe in his hand, blushed and threw it aside. "Oh, nothing, really."

Tails stepped forward, and started to ask about what on earth Sonic had been up to. As he got closer, he saw that Sonic's face was sliced on the side, there was a bruise on his side, his spines were darker on the ends as if they were on fire, and countless other bruises on his arms.

"Good grief! What happened to you, Sonic?"

"Well, I'll give it to you in a nutshell: fall off the Egg Carrier, wonder through an old pyramid, go into Eggman's base, get shot at by Mecha, fight a huge mech and see how you look."

Sonic found sugar and dumped quite a bit into a cup of coffee.

"Want some coffee with that sugar, Sonic?" Tails smiled.

Sonic smirked.

"Hey, you were on the Egg Carrier longer then I was. Did you see the Tornado?"

Sonic paused to remember, the snapped his fingers. "Yeah, some big cat took it to escape from it. I had to help him rescue a small frog from Chaos…"

Before he knew it, Sonic was telling Tails while sipping his coffee about what he had experience over the last twelve hours, stretching the details a little bit. Tails also told about him racing Eggman to a nuke in Sapphire City and then fighting a walker made by Eggman. He even told the fact that several reporters watched the whole fight, and that he was in the newspaper.

"Figures as much…" Sonic mumbled. "I'm out lost in a jungle and nearly gutted by robots, and you get the limelight."

Tails smiled smugly.

"Wipe that smile off your face, or I'll slap it right off."

Tails turned away, knowing that Sonic was bluffing. Then he turned to a nearby fridge, and took out an energy drink (for he thought that he was too young for coffee), and sipped it.

Almost immediately, the energy began returning, and then he thought about finding the Tornado. "Hey, Sonic! Want to help me find the Tornado?"

"Heck yeah! I want to see the thing closer. I'm wondering what you did to my plane."

"OUR plane."

Sonic shrugged, and finished his coffee. "I'm all charged up. C'mon! You can bring that drink with you, kid."

They both exited the workshop and began waling towards the cliff where the cart was located.

"Hey, race ya!" Sonic said.

"You're on!"

Sonic set off at a run, and Tails activated his jet anklets and flew after him, both laughing from the love of speed. Sonic made it there first, thanks to a sudden burst of speed that Sonic could enable.

Tails climbed into the trolley first though, and Sonic was forced to push it through, grumbling all the way. About five minutes later, they came to the other side. Sonic pointed out the pyramid sticking out of the sea of treetops.

"See that, Tails? I explored that whole pyramid. (It was partly true.)

"Cool! Tails scanned the rest of the valley. "Hey! What's that beyond the pyramid?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's Eggman's base. That's where I fought the Egg Viper…and Mecha."

"Why out here? I thought he hated vegetation!"

"I guess it was growing on him. Get it? Growing on him?" Sonic joked.

"Boo…" Tails said, reacting to the bad pun.

Sonic and Tails descended into the jungle valley, and Tails remembered. "Hey! I remember this jungle! Knuckles helped me find the Chaos Emerald so I could fly the Tornado 2!"

"Good ol' Knux! I saw him on the Egg Carrier. Not sure why he was there, but he was." Sonic shrugged.

"This place reminds me of the Great Forest before Robotnik came along. I wish he'd just go away."

"Yeah, sometimes I think that too."

Tails squinted through the morning air, and saw a glint of metal. "Hey, look!"

Sonic looked in the direction where Tails pointed, and remembered Metal-Sonic. "Careful kid, it could be the Tornado, but it could be Mecha, too."

Tails' eyes widened; he remembered too. "Ok, Sonic…uh, you go first."

Sonic smiled, but said nothing. He stalked forwards, looking all the time at the blue metal. Sooner or later, they found a turn in the trail, and they found a wall-less hut, built into the wall. Nearby, lying on its side was the Tornado 2, lying on a riverbed near the hut.

"Look! There it is!" Tails said.

Tails ran up and immediately began to inspect the Tornado for damages. Sonic took a good look around the hut. "Hmm, I wonder who lives here…"

He saw that there was a table in the middle (if you could call it a table), but it was the biggest table Sonic had ever seen. It appeared to be eight feet by three wide.

"Wow. The guy that lives here must eat a lot."

Listening to Tails tinkering with the engine compartment, he looked around more and saw a rack where the house met the tree.

"Hey, Sonic! Could you hold this while I check the inside here?"

"Sure." Sonic climbed down the steps from the house and took something out of Tails' hand. It was wrapped in burlap. Curiosity took over and Sonic unfolded it slightly and saw that it was the Blue Chaos Emerald.

"Is this one Knuckles found for you, Tails?"

"Yep. Went through heck to get it; dealing with a frog that nearly swallowed it."

"A frog that eats Chaos Emerald?"

"Imagine my thoughts."

Sonic wrapped the Emerald back in the burlap and clutched it tightly, for they weren't too far from Eggman's base. He decided to look more inside the house, more so the rack he saw before.

There were three fishing poles on it, and Sonic saw that there should be four, for there was a space between two poles big enough for another. He looked around for the tackle box and it was gone too.

"The guy must be fishing."

Sonic walked back to Tails, and saw that Tails was now in the cockpit. "How's the Tornado, kid?"

"Just a few scrapes. I can't see how anyone could land this thing…"

"Beginner's luck, I guess." Sonic thought about how to get the Tornado out of the jungle. "Hey, Tails, we don't have any runway of any kind here!"

"I know, but there's one thing that I didn't tell you about what else I did do the Tornado. I'll need the Emerald, Sonic."

Sonic handed back the burlap-wrapped Emerald, and Tails hastily installed it into the converter, then he leapt into the cockpit and he pressed a button; Sonic jumped back in surprise.

The tail extended, split and they seemed to morph into feet. The wings tucked into the body and a hoverjet appeared on the bottom. A mounted gun appeared at the rear. The only way you could tell that it was the Tornado was from the main body and that it was still blue.

"Whoa, Tails! What did you do?"

"I made a walker mode. That way we can get the Tornado to a runway without so much trouble. Oh, and it has a new name in this mode. I called it the Cyclone."

"Sweet!"

"Climb on! Let's go back to the workshop! I want to try the hoverjet some more."

Sonic climbed on behind the mounted gun, and saw that there were controls on the back. "Hey, these are just like the firing controls during the plane mode."

"Sure! I didn't want to confuse you with a different control panel. What if you punched a self-destruct button when you meant to fire a Cyclone-mounted power rocket?"

Sonic blinked in alarm. "You have a self-destruct button on here?" Sonic quickly looked at the control panel.

"No."

"Oh." Sonic still stared at the control panel as if it had mousetraps all over it.

Tails piloted the Tornado (or Cyclone) through the jungle paths. Sonic looked on in amazement as the Cyclone didn't have trouble avoiding fallen branches and more.

They came to the ledge where the mine cart was stationed.

"I'd love to see how we're going to get up there," Sonic said, pointed up.

"No prob. Hold on!"

Tails made the Cyclone jump, and Sonic felt like he left his appendix behind. Tails turned on his hoverjet full blast, and with both upward forces, was able to get to the top of the ledge. "Whew! We made it."

"That was cool!" Sonic exclaimed.

"C'mon! Let's get back to the shop. I'm starting to get hungry."

"Sure thing!"

The Cyclone walked forwards and into the darkness.

- - - - -

"Here we are!"

Xeya, the pink Flicky, had been leading Gamma to a room where robots with weaker fusion cores could charge up. Gamma was thankful, for he was getting warning alarms that power systems were in critical range.

"I thank you for your assistance, Xeya. Do you know the coordinates for E-101 Beta?"

Xeya looked confused, but then spoke, "Oh! You mean 'where is Beta'! Why didn't you say so?"

Gamma said nothing.

"Well, he's been flying around the whole Egg Carrier, mostly on the outside. I can take you there. But first, charge up. Beta hasn't been acting himself lately."

"Affirmative." Gamma's front panel opened and something stuck out and plugged into a matching socket. Power levels started to climb.

Gamma stood stock still as he charged up, and Xeya perched on Gamma's shoulder and began preening her wings.

Five minutes later, Gamma's fusion core was fully charged.

"All systems are operating normally. Power levels are at 99," Gamma's computer told him.

"Self-unit is fully charged." Gamma said in monotone.

Xeya flew in circles around Gamma. "Come, there's an elevator nearby. It leads to the construction bay."

Gamma followed the bird through a dark hallway that led to two doors. Xeya pecked a button and the doors open.

"Here we are. Let's go!"

Gamma stepped in and Xeya fluttered in. The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise. Several minutes later, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. They were near Construction Bay 1.

Gamma's memory banks depicted that this was the last place where Beta was being rebuilt. A shudder ran through the chassis; Beta was tortured here.

A few minutes later found them in the main hall, the Hot Shelter and Construction Bays behind.

"This is where I leave. I hope you can find Beta. I'll see you back on the island!" Xeya fluttered away through the hovercraft hole in the ceiling.

Gamma searched his memory banks for this "island," but no records were present. He walked to a console and plugged in. Beta was on the network, but on some strange instinct, Gamma thought it unwise to contact him through the network, but he didn't know why.

Once again it wasn't the robot computer that gave him that instinct, but it was the creature trapped in the hull. Gamma ventured to the hovercraft that would lead him to the surface of the Egg Carrier.

As he climbed in, he felt an impulse to check his data to see who else was needed to be rescue. Dr. Robotnik could have made others by now. The network connection he made earlier updated the roster for him. He got a list on the E-series and conditions.

E-101 Beta (m-k 2) Active (location: Egg Carrier decks)  
E-102 Gamma Active (location: Egg Carrier main hall)  
E-103 Delta Terminated  
E-104 Epsilon Terminated  
E-105 Zeta Terminated

Robotnik apparently had better things to do then build more, possibly in the light of his secret project. But what really disturbed Gamma was his own name on the list. How was he going to escape? The last three E-series robots were all Flicky birds trapped in the robot chassis. Could he and Beta be the same? And if he was, how was he going to get out?

His thoughts were interrupted when something whooshed by with the sounds of active hoverjets. Gamma looked in its direction.

It was a burly black-and-white robot, its arms wide and laser lenses peeked out between the claws at the ends. It appeared to have a segmented tail. Gamma didn't see it from the back, but its head had one single eye, narrowed to a horizontal slit.

Gamma wondered what it was, but found that its power signature matched E-101 Beta's, but it didn't look like Beta at all! Then he recalled the tag on the computer read-out: m-k 2

This Beta must be the version Metal-Sonic toyed with. Poor Beta.

Gamma walked after him, fearing a fight. This Beta Improved may be more of a challenge then the Beta Gamma knew a few hours after activation. He hoped that Beta would still have reason, despite his monstrous-looking hull.

- - - - -

Amy and Birdy were waiting on the docks near Station Square. They had rented a boat so as to get to the wreckage of the Egg Carrier. Amy would have to work more to regain the steep amount, but Birdy's parents need to be found, so her act of goodwill outweighed her finances for a trip to the mall.

She had some lessons boating, and so did have some experience to drive a motor boat. Her mother had invested in those for they did live near an ocean.

It was a small boat but it was perfect for Amy and Birdy. The hammer that Amy got from the Egg Carrier lay on the floor. Amy spent the morning practicing swings for it, for one never knows what Eggman would pull out from the inside of his sleeves.

It was now 11:00, and Amy had packed a lunch already and they began their trek over the water.

One thing that Amy did not account for was Birdy. Birdy was not accustomed to riding objects (Twinkle Park showed that) and quickly got seasick. Amy looked amused and sympathetic at the same time as Birdy was reeling on the bottom of the deck.

It was fortunate that the winds were fair and the sea was calm, for Amy had not had enough experience to go on more turbulent conditions.

The Egg Carrier loomed in the distance like a huge island, frowning and unwelcoming to anyone who would come upon it.

"There it is, Birdy. There's the Egg Carrier."

Birdy didn't look up, but trusted Amy just the same.

"We'll be there in a few minutes, Birdy."

- - - - -

Sonic was basking in the sun, back in the Mystic Ruins. He was looking over the Emerald, admiring its cool touch. This was his favorite of the Emeralds, for its color was a rich, deep blue, nearly the same shade as his fur. He then wondered if they should keep all the Emeralds…once they found them.

They had one, and Knuckles was the last one on the Egg Carrier. He's gotta know where Chaos went next. But getting there was harder, for he saw that the Island was floating again now and was a mile away. Knuckles was taking no chances in case for another splash-down. Still, it would be nice to know where the other Emeralds are. Besides, Tails needed an Emerald more then Sonic wanted one.

He took off the glove off of one of his hand to touch the Emerald more efficiently, for this was the only other one he touched besides the red one, and touching the red one with bare skin was out of the question. He found it nice that the Emerald felt cool, but what really surprised him was that it felt wet. He took a handkerchief and wiped it down, thinking that he accidentally dropped it in water.

To his astonishment, it still felt wet as if it was just withdrawn from water, but after several minutes of "drying," the white cloth was as dry as the desert sands.

Weird, Sonic thought. These Emeralds were getting weirder and weirder. He had to talk to Knuckles about these.

Then, something else happened. Sonic was stroking the Emeralds wide octagonal facet on the top, and he felt something he never felt before. It was the feeling of harmony, and there was a strange feeling in his fingers. The Chaos Emerald was resonating and the energy was being felt in his fingertips.

Sonic was hooked. He lowered his head down to the Emerald's facet and was out of the world. At first, all he saw was the deep blue of the Emerald, but then, the color spread through his vision, and he saw roaring waters, waterfalls, the oceans in storms. Then, the image turned into the silhouette of a city, but it was flooded and suddenly, out of the side of a building, a huge, appalling head of a monster reared out and let out a roar!

Sonic cringed at the sound, for it felt as if it was inside his head. He wished he could look away, but he couldn't!

"Sonic!"

Sonic snapped back into reality and started breathing heavily, and saw Tails have a worried look at Sonic. The break from the image caused cold sweat to drip down his shoulders and back.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked.

"Uh…yeah, I'm…okay." Sonic was breathing deeply. "I think I took a snooze cruise, I guess."

The humor of the statement reassured Tails, and he got back to the Tornado, still in walker mode.

Sonic gazed at the Emerald again, but it was its solid blue as before, as if nothing happened. He must've fallen asleep, sitting up. But still, he would have nightmares about that beast again, that's for sure.

He glanced towards the sea, and saw the Egg Carrier in the distance, floating. Sonic thought it was almost two miles away. Its immense size and clashing colors made it not difficult to see. Then, something else caught his attention, away from the Egg Carrier but still in the sea. The sun was high in the sky now and its light caught something and made it sparkle, like a single drop of rain caught in light.

Sonic got up and focused on the sparking object. It must be a boat of some sort, he thought, but Sonic wondered why they'd be heading to the Egg Carrier. It could be Eggman, but he'd use the hovercraft he had, would he? It looks like it came from Sapphire City.

"Hey, Tails!"

Tails looked out from the engine compartment.

"Do you have a pair of binoculars in the workshop?"

"Sure! Try in the bedroom, on the top shelf!"

Sonic got up and ran for the shop, tossing thanks back to Tails, who got back to work. Sonic found the binoculars, and blew the dust off of them. Of course, he started coughing for those had been up there for a while, and gathered a lot of dust.

He ran back out and put them up to his eyes. It took a bit of time to locate the boat, and when he did, it was blurry. Sonic was thankful that this pair of binoculars were the better kinds where you could adjust the clarity. Sonic did so and could see the boat easily enough.

"What have we here?"

Sonic tried to glimpse the pilot, but couldn't at first; the sun was putting too much of a glare at first, but he could tell that it was not Eggman; too small. Wasn't Metal-Sonic; wrong color and he could fly over; he wouldn't bother with a boat. Wasn't any human; again, too small.

Then the boat turned, and the glare moved. Sonic could see the pilot clearly. It was a young girl hedgehog with pink fur, red dress, ribbon and boots. Amy Rose.

Sonic lowered the binoculars and looked as mad and frustrated as one can be. Why on earth would Amy be so dumb as to go back to the Egg Carrier, where that robot that was there would find her again?

Sonic had a mind to just leave Amy to her problems, but if Amy got in trouble…Dang it! That girl really IS a pain!

"Tails!" Sonic jogged up to the fox and the Cyclone. "We got to go back to the Egg Carrier!"

Tails looked out, shocked. "Why on Möbius?"

Sonic quickly explained seeing Amy on the boat and the fact about a robot on the Carrier that had something against Amy. "We gotta jam out there!"

Sonic gave the Emerald to Tails, and Tails hastily installed the Emerald into the converter. Tails leapt into the cockpit and changed the Cyclone back into the Tornado, the plane mode, not the battle mode, but normal flight mode.

Sonic leapt back onto the saddle behind the seat, wincing slightly. "You got to get a better seat back here Tails."

Tails smiled, and then started the engine. "To the Egg Carrier!"

Sonic felt a sense of nostalgia as the plane flew out towards the Egg Carrier…again. It felt like they did this too many times.

- - - - -

Several minutes earlier…

Gamma stood on the glass circular platform which housed machinery on the front end of the Egg Carrier. Opposite of him was E-101 Beta Improved, staring down at him like a hawk does to a sparrow.

"Greetings, Beta. I apologize for what Mecha-Bot 2 has done to you…"

Beta reared back, and seemed to be charging for battle. Gamma resigned from his first strategy of just talking Beta into not fighting, but Beta apparently was beyond reason.

Gamma tagged Beta with his laser and fired an ion blast. Surprisingly, Beta threw up an arm and blocked it. Gamma learned that firing Beta from the front was useless. That presented many problems.

Beta was indeed "Improved;" Gamma had now no clue how to fight Beta. Beta had a vast array of attacks, and now new weapons. The claws on the front of the claws also proved effected. Beta reared back and suddenly charged at Gamma with the speed of an express train.

Gamma lacked the speed Beta possessed and was knocked down, now bearing four nicely-sized holes in his torso. But now an idea came to Gamma. Beta's back was now exposed, and quickly, Gamma fired two rounds of ion blasts into Beta's back.

Beta convulsed slightly and flew backwards several feet, his single green eye brightening several candelas. Beta backed up and panels opened in his back, sending several missiles towards Gamma.

Gamma tagged them with his laser and blasted them out of the air with his standard gun. Beta then flew high up and aimed charged blasts from the laser lenses from his arms. Gamma's solution against these was to run in circles, jumping and hovering over the broken glass sections, the blasts exploding harmlessly behind him.

Beta hovered to and fro, reading Gamma's defenses. Gamma was 27 damaged and Beta was 35 damaged. Gamma was stronger then he reckoned. Why was he fighting him anyway? The creature in his hull found this wrong, but this E-series robot had some control over it, like the machine Epsilon nearly self-destructed.

Gamma saw that Beta was hesitating, and Gamma began to wonder what he should do after Beta is destroyed?

Beta charged at Gamma again, but Gamma ducked, so the hull wouldn't get punctured again on the front, but despite that, Beta tore off a panel from Gamma's back, dangerously close to the hoverjet. The force bent one of Gamma's legs.

Gamma reared around and shot Beta in the back.

Gamma was 48 damaged, and warnings were flooding through the computer. Beta was 75 damaged as a missile rack was destroyed from Gamma's attack. Bolts of electricity were flickering outside the hull of Beta.

Beta charged again, lower to the ground, and Gamma lifted his arms to block the blow. The two were locked in arm combat, as Beta was trying to free his arms to punch at Gamma's head. Gamma's gun was inoperative while it was holding Beta's claws away.

This was leading to a stalemate and both of them knew it; both backed off.

Since Gamma was now half-way damaged, it was harder to operate. His movements were now sluggish, and walking with a bent leg was also an interference to Gamma.

Beta fired several charged shots towards Gamma, ending with one large shot that enveloped nearly half of the platform. Gamma fired several shot towards Beta, to lure him back down. Beta knew better, but it seemed that neither were going to get anywhere without taking damage themselves.

Now that Beta was 75 damaged, the programming that was commanding him to fight was weakening, and reasoning was beginning to filter back into the trapped creature's mind. If he was 100 damaged, he would escape this body and be free once more.

Beta dived towards Gamma without a second thought. Then Beta thought that Gamma will need to be destroyed too so that Rigel would escape…wait…Rigel?

Beta smashed into Gamma, firing a laser into the torso. The red robot toppled over, but then aimed an ion blast at Beta's now exposed back and fired.

Beta's back exploded and Beta began convulsing. Gamma got up, just in time to see Beta go through more convulsions like he was in a seizure and dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Gamma strode forward, ignoring the 89 damage flashing through the computer. Beta Improved was destroyed, but what about the creature inside?

Suddenly, Beta leaped up and blasted Gamma's head with a charged blast. Gamma's head was blasted clear off, and a few second's later, Beta's head burst off from internal explosions. Flying out of Beta's body was an off-white bird, slightly singed but unhurt. It quickly fluttered to Gamma's hull.

"Rigel! Rigel! Are you in there?"

Something stirred inside Gamma's hull and out fluttered a red Flicky, coughing and inhaling the air. It turned to the off-white Flicky.

"Tava?" the red Flicky that was Gamma said, voice trembling.

"I thought I blew your head off!" Tava said.

"Well…in a way you did."

"Hey, you haven't happened to see our son, Turos, have you?"

"No, not even as E-102 Gamma. I hope Dr. Robotnik hasn't turned him into a robot too."

Chapter 27: Amy vs. Zero  
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Amy and Birdy arrived on the Egg Carrier, on one of the side panels. It took a while to dock, but Amy managed and once on board, she tied the rope from the boat tight on an exposed support beam. Then, Amy picked up Birdy, for the poor Flicky was still suffering from seasickness slightly. She strolled on the deck, Birdy in one hand, and the hammer in the other.

"There. Now let's find you family, Birdy."

Amy walked around, trying to figure out where to go. This was the front half of the Egg Carrier, and she was only on the back half before, so nothing looked familiar. There was a lift nearby that lifted to a set of runways.

"Hey, Birdy, let's try that!"

Amy carried the slowly recovering Birdy to the lift, and once they stepped on, it immediately activated and went upwards. Once it stopped, they were on the runways. Amy strolled a bit, looking over the ocean.

"Wow, what a view!"

Suddenly, there was a bit if chirping from behind. Birdy suddenly stirred, seasickness forgotten and struggled out of Amy's hand.

"Whoa, what's wrong, Birdy?"

Birdy began fluttering towards the green glass cylinder at haste. Amy ran after him, holding the hammer near the head so to balance it out more. When Amy got to the top of the machinery capsule, she found no Birdy.

"Birdy? Where are you?"

Lots of chirping responded, and three Flickies fluttered down the Amy. Amy squealed in delight.

"All right! We found your family!"

The red one fluttered up to Amy. "Hi, Amy!"

Amy was a little surprised that these birds could talk, but even more so that it knew her name. "Who are you?"

"I'm Rigel, the bird that used to be E-102 Gamma."

"Who?"

"The red robot that helped you escape."

Amy's eyes widened in disbelief. "YOU are the nice robot?"

"Was. I finally got out of the robot, and I've been looking for Turos. This is my mate, Tava." The red Flicky motioned to the white one.

"Who's Turos?"

Birdy flew up and seemed to answer the question with an avian nod. Amy caught on.

"You're Turos? How cone you didn't tell me?"

"He can't speak just yet; he's still learning. Thank you for taking care of…"

Disaster struck in the form of a hand that smacked into Turos out of the air. As it retracted, Amy gasped in fright as Turos collapsed to the ground in a senseless heap of feathers.

During the conversation, the green robot Zero had come onboard the Egg Carrier from the main hall and detected intruders. It came to investigate and found the girl and bird that gave him the worst of trouble.

Amy looked up, saw Zero, and she was filled with rage at Zero for doing something so awful.

"Why, you stupid robot! I'm gonna show you a piece of my mind!"

Amy stood up and swung her hammer and stood in a pre-attack stance, the hammer ready to knock anything in the way out of the way.

"I'll show you what I'm made of!"

Zero stood in the middle, un-intimidated by the young, little-experienced hedgehog standing several feet away. The robot called up an electrical field that would keep Amy from escaping.

Amy saw several posts rise up on the rim of the very platform she was standing on, and then several hundred volts of electricity ran through the posts; there was no escape now.

Amy didn't care; she was too angry and was as mad as hive of hornets. She swung wildly at Zero's face, intending to whack out Zero's eyes. Zero took the blow, which sent him reeling. He underestimated the fight skills of this hedgehog.

Zero aimed a tag laser at Amy and let loose a fist, the same move that hit Turos out of the sky. Amy whacked it out of the way, and slammed into Zero's torso.

Zero began pouncing, trying to crush Amy under sheer weight. The battle was so intense on both sides that neither noticed a blue biplane coming in for a landing…and who was on it.

Zero in most fields had the upper hand: he had the strength, weapons and protection that Amy lacked, but Amy was small a target and hard to hit.

Suddenly, things turned ugly against Zero, for the battle brought the two dangerously close to the electrical field. A whack in Zero's face did the trick; Zero was knocked backwards into the electrical field.

Zero let loose a digital shriek that made Amy's ears hurt, and the robot lurched forwards, limp. The top part of Zero popped open, and Zero exposed his only weakness. A small, white, rectangular bunch of computer chips that stuck up from the inside. Amy saw it glimmering in the sunlight, steaming like a tea kettle on a stove.

Amy gave a cry of anger and brought the hammer down on the "brain" of Zero. The box of chips exploded as they overheated. Zero suddenly went into convulsions, electrical surges running through his body, for now they couldn't be processed.

Amy ran to the birds and helped them move Turos away from the doomed Zero. Zero lurched upright, and all of the sudden, exploded with a loud bang, pieces of his former self flying everywhere. Thus was the demise of the prototype of the E-series, E-Zero Alpha.

Amy dropped her hammer, ignoring the sound of the electrical posts dying nearby. She needed to see what happened to Turos.

"Birdy--I mean Turos, please wake up. I beat the bad robot. Please wake up…" Amy was on the verge of tears, and didn't noticed Sonic and Tails jumping off the Tornado and running towards Amy.

Tava put her head close to Turos face. "He's breathing, and his heart's beating…but why won't he wake up?"

"I don't know!" Amy was panicking; she began stroking the bird on the chest. "Please wake up…"

Turos' eyes fluttered open. He looked a little dazed, but seemed all right. He chirped a few notes, and both parents sighed in relief. "He's all right," Rigel said.

Amy sighed, and smiled.

"Thank you, Amy. I'm eternally grateful to you." Tava bowed a most beautiful bow for a bird.

"You're welcome. Wait, where will you go? You can't stay here, can you?"

"We'll go to the mainland. We'll see you again before going back to Flicky Island. Good-bye, Amy! We'll see you again!"

Turos, Rigel and Tava fluttered upwards and away. Turos made one last look back, and fluttered back to Amy. He quickly unbuckled the pendant he wore and gave it to Amy.

"Turos, your locket? You're giving it to me?"

Turos nodded. It was his gift of gratitude.

"Oh, thank you."

Amy patted the bird on the head, and Birdy chirped one last time, and flew hastily after his parents. Amy watched, teary-eyed.

"Amy!"

She jumped and turned around. There standing was Sonic and Tails, Sonic appeared a little crossed.

"Oh, hi Sonic." Amy didn't like Sonic's look.

"What in the world are you doing here?"

Amy looked down. Sonic didn't want her getting in the way, since the last times she tried they both got in trouble, and she understood. She stayed sitting, and didn't say anything.

Sonic noticed Amy's attitude. "Hey, what's up? What happened here?" Sonic noticed the junk lying about.

Amy cheered up a little, and looked at Sonic. "I helped getting those birds back together. Dr. Eggman had made robots out of them!"

Sonic saw the wreckage of Gamma, Beta and pieces of Zero scattered throughout the platform. "What the hey happened here, anyway?"

Amy went talkative and talked about the battle with Zero, and made it a point that she beat him all by himself. Sonic looked a little annoyed at the constant stream of chatter, but couldn't help liking her deep down. This was her first battle after all.

Sonic picked up the hammer and studied it; nothing special about it from the looks of it. "You beat a robot with this?"

"Yep!" Amy smiled smugly.

Sonic shrugged. He guessed that there was a first for everything.

"C'mon, we'll give you a ride to the Mystic Ruins. We'll come back for the boat."

Amy smiled, being with Sonic for one thing, but for destroying Zero.

"I never thought I'd make Sonic respect me, but I guess I was wrong," Amy thought.

A few minutes later, Tails, Sonic and Amy were leaving the Egg Carrier, and returned to the Mystic Ruins.

Chapter 28: The Quiet Before the Storm  
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Several days showed quiet with Eggman gone for now and Chaos defeated, Sonic, Tails and Amy had an empty schedule…much to everyone's delight.

Saturday showed Tails traveling to the Egg Carrier, for he was intrigued by the huge laser system there and wanted to know how it worked. He spent many hours at a time there, studying the weapon's there, now that Eggman wouldn't be using it anytime soon, it was much safer.

Sonic spent some more time with Amy, in the chao gardens in Sapphire City. Amy got to raise a new-born chao, and Sonic found that the chao he toyed with a few days before still remembered him, although it was greener then he remembered and it had two sharp points on the back of the head.

Knuckles spent the weekend looking around the old Master Emerald shrine in the Marble Gardens, studying it. Ever since the last vision he had, the one after the destruction of the Marble Gardens, he was curious about the outcome. He had hoped to find something, evidence of destruction, but the only thing he found was the unevenly broken seven pillars that displayed the seven Chaos Emeralds before they and the Master were located to the Hidden Palace. There the Supers were made, and then the Chaos Emeralds somehow ended up on the mainland…where Sonic and Tails found them later.

Big visited Sapphire City…for a little bit; just to get some more bait. Froggy hopped along beside him. He would not leave him again if he could help it.

Sunday was an interesting day; Sonic, Tails and Amy went to the Floating Island by the Tornado to visit Knuckles and the Chaotix; it was Amy's first visit there. Tails and Amy started exploring the Marble Gardens…and when they came upon the Master Emerald shrine, Amy stopped and gasped.

"Amy, what's wrong?" Tails asked.

"I've seen this before!"

"You have? But I thought you've never been here before."

"Yeah, but when I was in the Hot Shelter, this fairy showed me this place, but there were seven Chaos Emeralds and a big green Emerald here, and there was chao, and a water monster…and there was this girl name Tikal--"

"Tikal? You meet Tikal?"

"Yeah! You did too?"

"Yeah, but I was in this city with a bunch of Echidna's. I got this there." Tails displayed the Rhythm Badge.

"What happened in your dream?" Amy asked.

As Tails recounted his vision with Tikal, Sonic and Knuckles were in Lava Reef, talking about the Chaos Emeralds; Sonic recounted his little experience with the Blue Emerald. Knuckles nodded, interested and thinking at the same time.

"So, what do you think happened?" Sonic asked finally.

"I don't know. Chaos Emeralds are out of my league. There's probably a lot about them in the old documents. I'll look at them later…"

"Yeah, all right…whew, I forgot how hot it gets down here."

"There's lava everywhere; what did you expect, a walk-in freezer?

Sonic chuckled lightly.

By now, they came to the end of Lava Reef, where a small cavern opened to them. Knuckles crawled in, followed by Sonic. The atmosphere changed at once. It was still warm, but instead of the dull red of Lava Reef, it was a cool blue.

"Hey, speaking of Chaos Emeralds, what happened to Chaos?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I think I killed him though. When I gave the last punch, the ice shattered and out came the six Emeralds he had."

"Hmm, good riddance."

A few more turns later, they were in Hidden Palace. Normally, Knuckles would've murdered who got too close to the Palace. But Sonic and Tails had already been here, when trying to find Robotnik, and won his trust. Sonic and Tails would never give the location away.

Sonic noticed the Chaos Emeralds at the bases of the Super Emerald bases. "Hmm, no better place to keep 'em safe then here, eh?"

Knuckles spoke, "Might as well. We can't let Eggman get them."

Sonic was admiring the glow of the Blue Super Emerald, and stroke its facets. Nothing happened. "Hmm, it's strange. This was the way I was holding the Chaos Emerald when I zonked out. But nothing's happening here."

"I heard that even though the Supers came from the Chaos Emeralds, they run on entirely different principles, but that's all I know. I really need to study more about those Emeralds."

Sonic looked around at the other Supers standing around the Master. It reminded him of that vision with the dead chao and Tikal. That vision haunted him, and he shuddered slightly.

Knuckles noticed. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I was just remembering something."

"Like…?"

"Well, when I was lost in the jungle a few days ago, this fairy made me visit this pyramid in the jungle and led me into this room with a mural--"

"A mural! What kind?" Knuckles was very interested.

"Well, it had this huge blue dragon on it. It was rising out of a flood over a stone city."

"The mural of Chaos…"

"Huh?"

"Sonic, that was Chaos. That's what happened to my ancestors, and why the Master Emerald is now underground."

Sonic looked skeptical. "C'mon, Knux. I've seen Chaos when he has six Emeralds. He's big, but not as big as a fifty-story building."

"That's him with all seven Emeralds! Six Emeralds don't do the trick, but when all seven are there, it drastically changes things!"

"Oh…I didn't think about that."

Knuckles leaned against the Green Super Emerald Pedestal.

Sonic changed the subject…slightly. "How did you know about the mural of Chaos, or whatever you call that?"

"Well, uh, I was on the search for the pieces of the Master Emerald, when I was found by this fairy-like thing who led me to the pyramid and showed me around inside. There I found it."

"Fairy-like thing?"

"Yeah, like the one that led you through the pyramid."

"When you found the mural, was it followed by a dream?"

Knuckles thought a moment, and then his eyes widened a fraction. "Yeah, it did!"

Several minutes later, Sonic and Knuckles were going back through Lava Reef, discussing the different visions they had. Sonic had 1, Knuckles had 3. Little did they know that Tails and Amy above were talking about the same topic.

"Do you think that we should tell Tails about this? He was wondering in the jungle too." Sonic said.

"We should. I want to get to the bottom of this…Tikal, the chao, everything!" Knuckles stated.

Once they got back to the top, they hiked back to Knuckles' house and saw Tails and Amy talking on the front porch.

"Hey, Tails, Amy, what's up?" Sonic asked, once they got to the house.

"We were talking about something this fairy showed us."

"You too?" Knuckles exclaimed. "It happened to Sonic and me too!"

Thus began a "conference" to discuss the dreams. Tails described his visit to an old city with Tikal. Amy talked about Tikal, the chao and the water monster rising from the shrine moats. Sonic again discussed the gruesome night with the chao. Knuckles was writing down the dreams on a notepad, muttering as he wrote.

It was several minutes of quiet that followed, and Amy, Tails and Sonic waited tensely. Finally, Knuckles passed the notes to Sonic, and voiced his thoughts.

"This is what I came up with. What I surmised was that hundreds of years ago, there was a mainland tribe that lived in the now Mystic Ruins, but the chief there grew greedy and devoured up the surrounding tribes, then he set his sights onto Angel Island, and the Shrine of Chaos in the Marble Gardens. The chao lived here, under Chaos' protection.

"Tikal was young, and didn't know much about Angel Island, but didn't know if this war was worth the Emeralds. A few years before that, her grandmother commissioned her to memorize a poem dealing with the Chaos Emeralds. There's the poem on the paper."

Sonic had passed the note to Amy, and Amy read the poem first of all.

"So, my dream was first?" Tails said.

"In comparison to the others, yes. Now, Tikal went to the Island, out of curiosity, and found the chao…and met Chaos, who was suspicious."

"My dream," Amy said.

"Yep. Tikal also saw the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald. She began to think about that poem again. Then, she returned to the Mystic Ruin City and spoke earnestly with her father, the chief to call off the planned attack. I saw that in my first vision.

"She kept trying, and went back to the Master Emerald shrine and pleaded with the Emerald to do something or to take, Chaos, the chao and the Emeralds to another place to keep them away from her chief's greedy hands. My second vision…

"Then, the fatal night came. This part's a little foggy so I'm not too sure about what happened, but later in the night, Tikal was laying among dead chao, the shrine was ablaze and the Emeralds were gone, except the Master. I'm trying to figure out what happened next and what happened before."

Tails was reading the notes more, while Sonic voiced his thoughts. "Well, what gets me is, what was the point? That stuff happened hundreds of years ago and we couldn't have helped out even if we wanted to."

"As I said, I'm not too clear on it, so I'm just as lost as you," Knuckles answered.

Tails rubbed his chin in thought, and then spoke. "I wonder what that light was."

Sonic replied the quickest. "I think it was Tikal. How? I dunno, but all I know is that the voice of that fairy was the same as Tikal's."

Knuckles backed up Sonic's statement. "I agree. She spoke to me too."

"Well, what do we do now?" Tails finally asked.

Knuckles propped up his chin under his spiked fist. "Well, Chaos is dead and we've found the seven Chaos Emeralds, so we'll just make sure that Eggman keeps away from them."

Everyone nodded, but all shared the feeling that they didn't see the last of Tikal…or Chaos.

- - - - -

Monday showed Sonic convincing Tails not to go to the Egg Carrier to study the Egg Cannon and showing him the chao at Sunset Resort. Amy went shopping at the mall, and stopped by the jewelry store, and stared at engagement rings wistfully.

That evening, Sonic took Amy and Tails to Twinkle Park, and Sonic didn't realize what he missed at Pleasure Castle when Zero revealed himself. The game that he was thrown into had been replaced, and Sonic checked it out, but didn't play it immediately.

Sonic and Tails went back to the hotel to sleep, and decided to check out the chao gardens again the next day.

Tuesday was uneventful. Sonic taught his chao (which he named Dash) to swim properly. Interestingly enough, it never really learned how to swim properly; having imprinted on Sonic, it took on some of his likes and dislikes…like swimming.

Tails had hatched a chao the day before, and it immediately attached to the young fox. When Tails played with it the next day, today, he noticed that its default bright-blue color changed to a misty-sky-blue, as if one was looking at the sky through a thin cloud. It also tried to learn how to fly. Tails saw why Sonic liked these creatures so much.

Amy got a visit from the three Flickies: Turos, Tava and Rigel. They talked for a long time and Amy told Rigel about the meeting he had with Knuckles about Tikal and the visions.

Rigel jumped and hastily told Amy about his vision. Amy, wide-eyed, and took the Flickies to see Sonic and Tails. Sonic heard Rigel's dream and related to Knuckles through communicator. Knuckles took it in and thought that it happened on one of Tikal's later visits to the Gardens. It cleared up a minimal amount of the fog, but there was still a lot of things in question.

When Wednesday showed her face, things changed…drastically.

Chapter 29: Rage Awakened

Ancient city blazing, shadows keep attacking  
Little children crying, confusion, hopeless anger…  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It started on the Floating Island.

Knuckles was locked away in an old library in Sandopolis (for old parchments, a dry, arid place is the best place for preservation in ancient times) and was researching things about the Chaos Emeralds, especially the blue one considering Sonic's experience, when he felt the whole place shake, and then felt like the whole place was sinking.

Knuckles leapt to his feet and ran out the chamber doors, for he knew what was going on…the Island was sinking again!

He headed towards the nearest teleporter which was a good run away, but when he was within eyesight of it, the island struck the ocean, and the whole Island rocked, but remained intact.

The Echidna teleported down to the Hidden Palace, and was astonished and puzzled at the scene. It…was normal!

The Master Emerald was still glowing, and the Supers were as well, but the Island still fell!

"This doesn't make sense…"

He made a quick eye-scan of the Palace, and his gaze fell on the Chaos Emeralds. Ah, the Chaos Emeralds! These Emeralds tended to be unpredictable, and apparently made a power drain on the Master Emerald. He gazed at the Emerald, and it was glowing but not as hot as it normally was.

Knuckles glared at the Emeralds. He took them in to keep them safe, and what do they do?

"Hmm, I guess it's not safe to keep them here after all. Hmm, I'll take them to Sonic, and I'll tell him to take them to Knothole. That should be a safe place. Yeah, that should be good."

Knuckles ran back to the teleporter to go back to the house and grab his backpack to get the Emeralds and take them to the mainland.

- - - - -

Robotnik, for a real first in his life, rode out in his battered hovercraft to get fresh air and look around the jungles. Although he didn't enjoy himself, for he was brooding over his defeat as well as Chaos' defeat, and had found out that he was dead. It seemed that no matter what happened in his favor, he can't overthrow anything and keep it!

He was in this broodiness so deeply that he didn't notice at first a puddle of water running in his wake. Robotnik perked up, for he remembered something. In case of the Egg Carrier's demise, he had built a duplicate to replace it, but dare he use it? Tails had pretty much obliterated the first Egg Carrier with his biplane.

Suddenly, he heard a bubbling sound from behind; he turned his head to see the body of Chaos 0 solidifying behind him.

"Chaos! You're not dead! How--?"

But before Robotnik could say anything else, Chaos grabbed Robotnik's hovercraft and shook it to and fro. Robotnik yelled in surprise and fright, and with one heave, Chaos threw the hovercraft, and Robotnik blanked out. The craft was flying towards the coast.

- - - - -

Sonic was admiring the Windy Cave from the outside and was listening to the wind inside, whining as it flew upwards.

Suddenly, he heard Tails shout from behind. Sonic looked back and saw the fox running straight towards him, eyes wide.

"Hey, Tails, what's up?"

"No time, Sonic! I was on the ledge near my workshop, working on the Cyclone, when I saw something fall in the distance. I took the binoculars and looked to see what it was. It was the Floating Island!"

Sonic's spines leaped erect. "Hey, no way! What happened?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure Knuckles is trying to find out. We got to help him!"

"C'mon, we'll run along the coast until the Floating Island's close, then you'll fly me across, got it?"

"Got it!"

Sonic took off, followed by Tails, flying with the jet-anklets. Sonic dialed up Knuckles' frequency with his communicator that Tails lent him.

- - - - -

Knuckles was actually already on the mainland, and was walking down the coast to get to the Mystic Ruins base. He had his shovel-claws strapped on for Sonic did inform him that Eggman had a base in the ruins. He had been walking so for several minutes when he his communicator buzzed.

"Yeah, this is Knux."

"Hey, Knux," It was Sonic. "What's up with the Island?"

"I think it was the Chaos Emeralds, and they caused a power drain on the island." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm taking them to you."

"What am I going to do with all seven?"

"Keep 'em safe. Take them back to Knothole when you get them. Then--wait, Sonic, someone's here."

Knuckles lowered the communicator from his face and saw that there was a hovercraft turned over, and a figure of a man was laying down face down, and was moaning. It was Robotnik!

Knuckles stalked towards Eggman, surprised at his condition. "Robotnik, why are you here?" Knuckles kept the backpack on his back; he was not about to have Robotnik know he had six Chaos Emeralds.

But Robotnik couldn't care less if he had one Emerald or not, he was in shock. "It--it's terrible! C-Chaos is…"

"Is what, doctor?"

Suddenly, he heard a deep growl behind him, and Knuckles turned. It was Chaos!

"Chaos!"

Chaos swung an arm to strike Knuckles, and his arm extended ten feet. It slapped Knuckles across the chest, knocking him out cold. Chaos picked up Knuckles and grabbed the backpack. He ripped out open, and saw the Emeralds.

- - - - -

Sonic was listening to what was happening on the other end. Knuckles had left the line open. It sounded like thus:

"Take them back to Knothole when you get them. Then…" A pause. "…wait, Sonic, someone's here." Footsteps, and someone moaning. "Robotnik, why are you here?"

Sonic's heart leaped in surprise. His mind screamed to tell Knuckles to get away, but what came next was strange.

"It--it's terrible! C-Chaos is…" A pause, the Knuckles spoke. "Is what, doctor?" A pause, then a shout. "Chaos!" The sound of a scuffle, then static.

Sonic shouted up to Tails. "Double time, Tails! Knux is in trouble!"

Sonic tore across the coast, then realized that Chaos was alive. If he found those Emeralds Knux has…

Tails shouted from above. "I see them! It's Knuckles and Eggman!"

Sonic gave a thumbs-up and screeched to slow down. He sprinted to the bodies of Knuckles and Robotnik. Robotnik was stirring, but Knuckles lay still.

"Tails! See if you can wake up Knuckles! I'm talking to Robotnik!"

Sonic stalked up to Robotnik. "Well, Eggman? What happened here?"

Robotnik rolled over, and stared up at Sonic. "Chaos is still alive! He attacked Knuckles and took the Emeralds from him! He's after the last one!"

"Sonic, Knuckles is awake now."

Knuckles sat up, and rubbed a bruised spot on his chest. "Oh, what happened?"

"Chaos attacked you and took the Emeralds," Sonic answered.

Knuckles whipped off his backpack, wincing at the pain in his chest, and saw that his backpack had nearly been torn in two. Knuckles cursed aloud.

Robotnik lifted himself to a sitting position. "Where's the last Emerald?"

Sonic looked at him. "We have it, but not here."

"You must go back and get it, and keep it from Chaos! I must go back to the base, now!"

"Robotnik, wait!" Tails shouted.

Robotnik ignored him and climbed into the hovercraft. He took off into the jungles with the roar of his hovercraft rumbling through the woods.

"Sonic, remember the mural in the pyramid?" Knuckles said.

"Yeah, how could I forget?"

"That's what will happen again if he gets that Emerald. You heard Eggman, get that Emerald and guard it with your life!"

"Can do, Knuckles. You'll be all right, Knux?"

Knuckles stood up. "I'll be fine, but it won't matter if Chaos gets that Emerald."

Tails spoke earnestly. "C'mon, Sonic! Let's go!"

Sonic turned to run, but balked. A light fluttered around in his face and went right up into his eyes. "Aw, gee!" Sonic exclaimed.

Tails and Knuckles turned to see Sonic slumped over on his side, the red light they were very familiar with flying above him in circles.

"What happened?" Tails said.

"It's Tikal. Sonic's getting another vision." Knuckles shrugged. "Tails, I'm going to the city. If Chaos gets that Emerald, he'll hit that city, just like Eggman said before. I've got to warn them. When Sonic wakes up, run the heck back to where you have the Emerald, pronto!"

Knuckles turned around, and ran down the coast. Tails waited, impatiently. Time was running out.

- - - - -

Sonic rose from a sitting position on a rocky landscape. He could see that it was now night. He saw something glowing different colors ahead. He thought it was an aurora borealis, but they were too far south for that. He sprinted towards the light, and saw a sight which brought down to earth the situation.

It was the Master Emerald shrine in the past, and over 100 yards away, over the bridge was a great army. Near the mouth of the bridge stood several figures, but one he knew all too well. One was Tikal, and she was standing in front of all the other figures there, arms outstretched. Sonic crept close to hear what they were saying.

"Get out of my way!" said the center figure. Sonic assumed he was the chieftain that Knuckles mentioned, Tikal's father.

"No!"

"We need those Emeralds to survive, Tikal! They're for our people, YOUR people! Stand aside!"

"I won't obey! This is just the start of greed! You'll keep swallowing up every single tribe around, and even then, you won't stop! Father, listen to reason! This is evil!"

"Bah! I don't listen to the words of a child! I didn't become the leader by listening to children's babble!"

Sonic suddenly knew what was coming.

"Ready, men…"

"Father, NO!"

"CHARGE!"

As the Echidnaen lines advanced, Tikal was struck down in the head by a swipe from a spear. Then, the Echidnas began slaughtering the chao. The cries of the chao, the blood pouring out like water, the blood-filled dry of the Echidnas drove Sonic mad. He screamed in rage and charged at the nearest Echidna, intending to make him feel what the chao felt.

But when he curled into a ball of spines, he went through the Echidna as if he was a ghost. He was among them now, and they passed through him. Sonic couldn't stand it, he rushed out and broke down outside of the crowd of Echidnas, the cries of the chao piercing through his brain.

He looked again as saw that the Shrine was now ablaze in fire. The chieftain stalked up the staircase, intending to take the Master Emerald, but before he got there, the waters poured out of the moats and formed into the humanoid figure of Chaos 0. Sonic, clear from where he was standing, could sense the hatred in Chaos' eyes.

The Echidnas backed down, shouting various things when they saw the monster. Chaos looked down, saw the chao, and the wrath of Hades broke loose.

The seven Chaos Emeralds were thrown off their pedestals; the pedestals themselves cracked like twigs under Chaos' strength. The Emeralds flew into Chaos' body, and a huge white light shone out. All the Echidnas stood rock still as the bright silhouette of Chaos grew bigger…and bigger…

Sonic sprinted up to Tikal, and found that a chao was crying out in pain nearby. He picked up Tikal and the chao and hustled them out of the way of the fury that would come.

Then, the worst night in Echidnaen history entered the final stage. The light faded, and Sonic gasped as he looked into the face…of Perfect Chaos: a giant, water-beast with the head the shape of a moray eel's. He looked twenty stories tall. It roared deeply, and the whole island seemed to shake under his wrath.

He swept down onto the ranks of the Echidnas like a flood. Sonic now heard a different noise: the cries of Echidnas dying, the roar of the waters that Chaos commanded to kill everyone in his sight, and the roar of Perfect Chaos, mournful and raging.

Sonic shut his eyes tightly at the scene. The chao continued to cry nearby, and it seemed that this was taking hours.

Then, it stopped. He opened his eyes, and saw the bodies of the chao strewn about. Chaos was gone, and the fire was still blazing on the shrine.

"Tikal! Tikal, wake up!"

Sonic shook the limp body of Tikal, and she stirred. "Are you all right?" Sonic asked.

She stirred slightly, and moaned painfully. "I…I think so. What happened?"

"One of those Echidnas grazed you with a spear, then…" Sonic choked. "…they killed the chao."

"What?" Tikal leapt up, ignoring the blood trickling down her face. "No, no, no!" Tikal heard the chao crying at her side, and picked it up, and seemed to cry into its blood-matted fur.

Sonic stepped away, shivering at the wind. It seemed colder now then ever before. Again, he heard Chaos roar again, mournful.

Tikal looked up, her face wet with tears. "I must stop this, now!"

Tikal began to run.

"Hey, wait!" Sonic said, sprinting after her.

Tikal reached the top of the shrine, and put the chao down. Sonic was there a half-second later and stood staring at the Master Emerald. Tikal began to speak:

"The servers are the seven Chaos, Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart, the controller is the one who unifies the chaos!"

Tikal laid her hands against the gem's surface. The Master Emerald began to blaze. Sonic blinked in the increasing light.

"You must stop him, NOW!"

A humongous flash erupted from the Master Emerald, and Sonic felt his optic sensors burn at the brightness.

Suddenly, he was awake, lying on his side on a beach. He leapt up, his eyes wide from what he just saw.

Tails was standing nearby, and heard Sonic gasping.

"Sonic! You're awake! What did you see?"

"No time! We gotta juice back to the Cyclone! Let's go!"

Sonic took off at a run, and was out of sight in a heartbeat. Tails followed as fast as he could, jet-anklets roaring in his wake.

- - - - -

Metal-Sonic stood in the shadows of the trees and base, watching the Egg Carrier 2 lift off from the launch base and fly towards Sapphire City, slowly but surely.

"Hmph, you never seem to sense the futility behind all of your machines, Dr. Robotnik. All but one."

He of course was referring to himself. He glared at the gargantuan ship as it slowly shrunk in the skies. If Robotnik survived any attack against Chaos, Mecha could have the facilities to make new upgrades for himself. If he didn't, Robotnik would be dead, and Mecha would be free, but the facilities would be useless. Dr. Robotnik knew some things that Mecha didn't.

He sat there, in the shadows, and weighed the possibilities. He couldn't care less if Robotnik was killed under normal circumstances, but since Robotnik had much knowledge about metal-craft, still unknown to Mecha, having him dead would destroy any knowledge that Mecha needed.

The burly-blue robot stalked back into the Final Egg base, and wondered into the labs. He wondered at the cartilaginous joints that he now possessed. He strolled to a computer and looked up information on metal-craft and upgrades. He found the files locked, but that didn't deter him. His internal matrix plugged in through the network and overrode the security.

He found that the joints were made of a new-form of metal that Robotnik invented out of nanite-produced gel which had a semi-tight bond, each nanite flowing around each other, but it flowed like cold molasses, but still liquid.

"That explains the flexibility," Metal-Sonic thought.

Nanites; Mecha was familiar with them. They were microscopic robot like cells that carry energy, like red-blood cells slightly, can cause havoc, like viruses, and have numerous other uses. He didn't carry any inside his hull, though, besides the ones in his joints.

What Mecha found fascinating about these nanites was that the particularly unique was that they seemed organic in a way. Metal-Sonic pulled up advanced biology files, particularly dealing with bones. He was astonished to find that the nanites in his joints were made in the same shape of organic cartilage cells in any animal skeleton.

"It seems that Robotnik made a breakthrough in bio-robotics. This surpasses the roboticizer greatly."

Mecha downloaded the data he found about these "bio-nanites" into his memory banks. He then began downloading the advanced biology files, but they were too large to store. He took a few trips to download as much as he dared, then empty it onto several flash-cards he kept in his quarters. It took time, but since Robotnik was gone, he had plenty of time.

Once he was done, he thought about Chaos and Robotnik. He recalled that the doctor was flying the Egg Carrier 2 to Sapphire City. He thought in grim amusement at the battle or lack there of if Chaos got the last Emerald.

Maybe he too should fly to Sapphire City…just to play spectator.

- - - - -

Back in the Mystic Ruins, Sonic was pounding the earth with all the speed he could carry. That vision of Perfect Chaos was carved into his mind, and suddenly remembered the Blue Emerald and what he saw with it. Chaos in the vision looked a whole lot like the monster Sonic saw in the Emerald's facets.

The thought just made him run faster.

Sonic saw the train station ahead and slowed so as not to overshoot Tails' workshop. He ran up the steps and stopped at the Cyclone. Tails quickly followed up, panting; the flight took a lot out of him, and he landed, winded and reeling beside Sonic.

"C'mon, we got to get that Emerald out and we'll run to Knothole with it. Hurry!"

Tails jogged up to the Cyclone to fetch the Emerald. Suddenly, a pillar of water erupted from where the Cyclone stood. Sonic and Tails were thrown back from the sound and the shaking of the earth. The Cyclone was deep inside the pillar.

Suddenly, the pillar vanished, and the Cyclone stood dripping, and needless to say, cleaner then ever before.

Tails quickly got up and opened the engine compartment, fear growing in his mind. He found the converter, but the Emerald, was gone.

"Oh no! The last Emerald's gone!" Tails cried out.

Sonic's eyes grew wide in realization. "Chaos nabbed it!"

Tails looked up to Sonic, ready to panic. "What are we gonna do now?"

Sonic paused, and blurted out "We gotta juice to the city, pronto!"

Chapter 30: The Fall of Sapphire City

Thunder, rain and lightning  
Danger, water rising  
Clamor, sirens wailing  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic wasn't even a quarter way to Sapphire City when it happened.

It was a beautiful day in Sapphire City. It was about noon now, and a rush hour was active as people from their offices were trying to grab a quick lunch and rush back to their offices. People were in the downtown region, walking to shopping marts, conversing with each other; completely oblivious to what was going to happen.

It was in this pre-storm atmosphere when Knuckles the Echidna came running in, panting and looking serious. He began pleading with people to move inland, for there was a huge sea monster heading towards the city. Several people scoffed this, saying something like he was watching too much Sci-Fi Channel movies, but some saw the fear in the Echidna's eyes and complied. A few of the latter were the Rose family, and the Flickies that were staying with them.

Amy didn't know Knuckles long, but knew that he was Sonic's friend, and Sonic trusted Knux like none other. It would be wise to trust him here.

While some lagged and some fled, there was a disturbance beneath the pavement, deep within the sewers. The still waters that flowed through the sewers suddenly started to stir; a low rumbling was evident as well.

Knuckles felt the ground shake slightly and ran for his life. Some other people also felt it and began to venture deeper into the mainland quickly as well.

Water poured into the sewers below, surging through the pipes.

The traffic continued through Station Square and the downtown region, undaunted. Suddenly, several manholes blew, water shooting out like great geysers! People screamed and ran. Cars veered away from the water flow. The streets began to crack from the extreme pressure that was still building underneath.

From the skyscrapers, windows blew out, and tons on water poured out like water from a pitcher. More and more skyscrapers bent and gave to the flood; the streets cracked like wood and water shot skyward; and suddenly, a huge wave, ten stories tall roared off the coast. This tsunami bulldozed through Station Square and deep into the city, until its weight took over, and it brought down building after building with its fall.

The sky began to cloud. Lightning flickered to and fro, striking the building with all their wraths. The water began to rise quickly. 100 feet. 200 feet. 300 and it still rose without stopping.

Very soon, Sapphire City changed from a bustling city, to a post-apocalyptic landscape; the buildings, leaning and broken, looked like tombstones of a lost civilization. The Fall of Sapphire City had only taken ten minutes.

- - - - -

Sonic rounded a bend in the jungle trail which led to a hill. He didn't even know what he would do if he beat Chaos to the city, but he was going to do something. He ran up the hill, not slacking his pace, but stopped frozen when he reached the top. Tails was right behind him, and when he reached the top, he drew a breath.

From the high hill, they could see Sapphire City, but instead of the city they grew to like, they saw that over half of it was underwater, and that a huge storm had built on top of it.

"Sonic! He beat us!" Tails shouted in despair.

Sonic stood, not responding. He had never seen such a disaster before, and it torched his heart.

"Why?" Sonic mouthed.

"Sonic! Knuckles is here! He may be hurt!"

Sonic snapped out of it. "What? Why the heck is he here at Ground Zero?"

Sonic took off, running on the ground as far as the floods would allow, and building hopping the rest of the way. He was glad for the practice he had a few days before.

He reached the "ruins" of Sapphire City, and was shouting Knuckles' name everywhere.

"Knuckles! Knuckles! Where are you, man?"

Sonic looked around at the disaster area: half-looking for the red Echidna, and half-looking at all the destruction. It was like…the beginning of the end of the world. It was...too much.

Sonic stopped on a strip of the Speed Highway, which happened to survive the surge of the tsunami. His eyes hurt at the repeated lightning strikes.

"Knuckles! Where are you?"

"Hey! Who is that?"

"Knux? Where the heck are you?"

"Under this car!"

Sonic looked around and spotted a red SUV lying upside down, and he saw a shoe sticking out. "Hey! What the hey happened?" Sonic sprinted around and found Knux lying on his front.

"I was running…when I heard the ground rumble. I got to…this highway…and when the tidal wave hit…it threw this stupid car onto my leg. I think it's broken!"

Sonic looked at the leg that the offending SUV had pinned down the leg. Blood was everywhere. Sonic winced. "Man, Knux, that looks awful."

"Yeah, duh!" Knuckles felt that Sonic was asking if the sky is blue.

"I'm sorry! Okay?" Sonic stood staring at the car, and wondered which way to move it.

"Don't try, Sonic. You couldn't make any progress moving that car as me pushing a glacier!"

Tails parachuted in by his pair of tails and landed just a few feet away. "Hey, you found Knuckles!"

"Yeah, he did. Did you just come by to announce to a dead city that I broke my leg under a flying SUV and the fact that Sonic found me?"

"Cool it, Knux!"

"You should talk! You're standing there on two good legs!"

Suddenly, the three were interrupted when the side of a nearby building blew out with the sound of glass breaking times 50, and the water began pouring out. Then, it swelled into a bubble and it began morphing. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles stood motionless, staring at the bizarre show. Tails' face wrinkled in disgust as eyes began to form. Knuckles stared unblinking, and Sonic looked stern.

The bubble stretched, and into the shape of a moray eel's head. Green eyes formed and produced narrow slits. The skin of the creature grew scales, and Sonic stood staring at the monster he saw twice in two different visions.

"Perfect Chaos."

The monster's head raised and let out a roar that shook the waters and the very pavement that the three were standing.

"If only I was dreaming! That monster…" Sonic pointed at Chaos, his eyes rimmed red with anger. "…is a real menace!"

"Sonic, I have an idea to got Knuckles out! I'll push upwards on the car, using my jet-anklets to get better push, and you'll drag Knuckles out!"

Sonic snapped out of looking at Chaos and looked at Tails. "Gotcha. Let her rip, kid!"

Tails clicked his heels and pushed up on the SUV, spinning his tails to get even more push. Sonic saw it lift slightly, and dragged Knuckles out. Knuckles cursed at the pain as Sonic rescued him. Tails dropped the SUV, and it crashed down again, glass spilling onto the highway.

"Thanks, guys," Knuckles said.

"Heck of a good thing that was since that jerk is playing proud punk over there!" Sonic shouted, pointing behind him to Chaos. "And we can't do a thing about it!"

Chaos dove forward into the water, bored of his view from the building and reformed a short ways away and sank his jaws into a nearby building. The three cringed at the sound of metal tearing and ripping apart.

Suddenly, all of them heard jet engines coming closer. It sounded very familiar to all of them.

"Sonic, look!" Tails pointed towards the north. "It's Eggman!"

Sonic looked and saw the Egg Carrier coming their way. "Wha--? I thought the Egg Carrier was brought down!"

"For your information, hedgehog, that is the Egg Carrier's mundane duplicate, the Egg Carrier 2."

Sonic looked up to see Metal-Sonic, sitting on a building, staring down at the destruction. Sonic regained his cool.

"For once, Mecha, I agree with you. What the heck are you doing up there?"

"I'm, what you would say, 'watching the show?'"

Sonic couldn't believe Metal-Sonic would have the gall to watch mass destruction, but his mind changed when he saw the Egg Cannon cover open.

The Egg Cannon fired and shot through Chaos' liquid body, causing the water to heat up, and steam rose from the floods. But that's all it did, for Chaos still stood defiant, glaring so hard at the Egg Carrier 2 that it could burst into flame from the glare alone.

But that was not Chaos' idea.

Sonic saw that there was a huge glow building in Chaos' throat. Chaos opened his mouth and out shot a beam that seemed to be made of lightning. It shot skywards and it breached through the Egg Carrier 2.

The Egg Carrier 2 split cleanly through the middle, like a hot knife sliced through a butter stick.

"Whoa!" Tails let out.

"Eggman's toast!" Sonic let out quietly, wide-eyed at Chaos' power.

Metal-Sonic saw the brief battle, and flew off, obviously having seen what he wanted to see.

"Chicken!" Sonic shouted after him, hearing Mecha's jet.

"Not now, Sonic!" Knuckles barked, sitting up, breathing through his teeth at the shock of pain in his leg.

"We gotta get Knux out of here!" Tails said.

"How? Chaos is right over there!" Sonic motioned to Perfect Chaos. "If you try to airlift him, he'll pick you off like he did Eggman, and you'll be nothing but ashes!"

Suddenly, the same light that showed five people different visions flew past Chaos' head and flew in front of Sonic.

"Hey, it's you! You're the one who sealed Chaos in the Master Emerald! Tikal…"

Knuckles and Tails looked at the ball of light as it fluttered around, then it swelled into a glowing red silhouette of a young girl. The three shielded his eyes as the glow became too much. Then, the light faded and there stood a young, Echidna girl wearing ancient attire.

"Tikal?" Knuckles said.

"Yes. I was sealed in the Master Emerald along with Chaos, hundreds of years ago. But when Chaos broke out, I was released as well. To warn you, I had to give you visions of the past, so you could know what Chaos would do when he gets to his full potential. He's angry and bitter with the death of the chao, and he won't let up at all. His heart is as hardened just like my father's."

Chaos roared again, and something fell from head. Knuckles saw what they were, just as one plinking onto the pavement nearby.

"Sonic! Look!"

"Hey, that's not cool!" Sonic picked up the object, a dull-grey gem.

"He drained the Emeralds of their power! He must be put back into the Master Emerald, NOW!"

"How can that help?" Knuckles said, testing his leg bravely and found that it wasn't broken at first thought. Relieved, he stood up, ignoring the jolt of pain.

"It won't change what's inside, will it Tikal?" Sonic added. "He may be out of our trouble, but with the sight of the dead chao still in this mind, he'll just stay angry, and his heart will be in turmoil!"

"He'll just be trapped forever!" Knuckles finished.

"What other choice do we have?" Tikal asked.

Tails sat thinking, gazing at Chaos off and on. Then, he thought about the conversation that they had earlier the past week-end. Sonic said something about dead chao. Amy said that Chaos appeared in the moats near the chao. Knuckles also saw the chao. Sonic also told him about the Flicky's dream.

"That's it!" Tails exclaimed.

"Whoa, kid! What's with the blurt-out?"

"The chao! Remember that Chaos was the guardian of the chao? He's angry now that he thought that all the chao were killed…"

Sonic was catching on. "…but all of them weren't! One was rescued by Tikal!"

"Let alone all of the ones at Sunset Resort," Tails added.

"Hey, you're right. Do you think they survived?"

Knuckles looked at the flood. "Not likely."

"They could've. The chao garden is on the top floor of that hotel. That hotel was tall too, so there is a chance."

"First of all, we gotta get there without a certain water monster with anger issues finding us."

"We could use the Chaos Emeralds," Tikal suggested.

"What? These?" Sonic held out the dead Emerald.

"Yes!"

"And use them how?"

"You should know!"

"What, get a sling and throw them at his head?" Sonic was getting ticked.

"Sonic!" Tails said.

"What?"

"Remember how you beat the Death Egg, Sonic? You used the Emeralds!"

"But they actually had power in them at the time. They're deader then a burned-out light bulb."

"Wait, Tails has an idea!" Knuckles said. "The last time, you went Super and the Emeralds converted to pure energy. If the actual jewel is still here, that means some energy is still there. You may still be able to use them."

"But first, we need to find the rest of them."

"Geez, they could be anywhere," Sonic said, looking around.

"Sonic!" someone shouted from above.

Sonic looked up to see three birds fluttering towards them, and they were carrying two dark grey gems like the one Sonic has. It was the three Flickies: Rigel, Turos and Tava.

"Hey, you guys!"

The three dropped the gems onto the pavement. "We found these, and thought you'd need them. What is that?"

"That's Chaos."

"The water monster?"

"Yep."

"Wow…"

Knuckles got up and started listening, something was happening. There was a weak signal, something ringing in his mind. He began walking to the source.

"Knux! You got to get off that leg!"

Knuckles ignored Sonic and looked into the water. On a sunken part of the Speed Highway, there was a gem, glittering through the broken light.

"Look! There's one below!"

Sonic jogged up and saw Knuckles pointing down at the gem below. "Drat. That's gotta be at least 10 feet down."

"That's no problem. I can swim. Sonic, can you hold these jet anklets for me?"

"Sure," Sonic took the jet anklets and watched Tails dive in. A few seconds later, Tails emerged with the Emerald.

"Well, that makes five." Sonic twiddled his thumbs impatiently.

"Two to go," Knuckles muttered.

"I think I can find them," Tikal spoke up. "I'll be right back. Chaos shouldn't bother me."

Tikal vanished into her light form and flew away.

"Even if I go Super with these Emeralds, would it be able to fight Chaos with them? He made short work of the Egg Carrier 2," Sonic said.

"Like it hasn't happened before. Tikal was able to stop Chaos with the Master. You should be able to use the Emeralds against him."

Perfect Chaos suddenly dove forward into the water, and what happened was surreal. Buildings began to tip over from some unseen force.

"Looks like Chaos is bent on destruction underneath the floodwaters," Knuckles commented dryly.

Tikal suddenly zipped back again and reformed into her Echidna form. Two Emeralds dropped from nowhere with her. "I found them on top of a building."

"Well, that's seven." Sonic sighed. The thought of using dead Emeralds against a monster that was bigger then the Egg Carrier itself was unnerving.

"Better try now, Sonic. Chaos will flatten the place before sunset."

Sonic looked at the wake that Chaos was creating with his underwater movement. Then, he lifted up one Emerald and closed his eyes. The other Emeralds began spinning around Sonic, orbiting faster and faster as time went on. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the Emerald that Sonic held and enveloped Sonic's body. Tails, Tikal, the Flickies and Knuckles covered their eyes at the light.

When the light dimmed, the others saw Sonic, now glowing an orange-ish color, and was enveloped with a golden fire. His spines now stood up as if charged with electricity. He floated a few inches off the ground. His eyes also changed: instead of an emerald green they were now a golden yellow.

Super Sonic turned to the rest of the people on the highway. "Let's kick some butts."

Tails cheered and Knuckles flashed a thumbs-up.

"Sonic, make sure that you keep Chaos away from Station Square. We can't have him interrupting us."

"Got it. I'll do more then just play distraction." Sonic turned away and faced Chaos, who had now emerged a good distance away. "I'm going to take him down."

Sonic flashed down the water surface, leaving a trail of yellow light.

"C'mon! We got to find the chao!"

Chapter 31: Final Fight

If it won't stop, there will be no future for us…  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Super Sonic caught Chaos ripping apart a mass of building farther away, and set out to hit him as hard as he could. He knew that Chaos' weak-spot at all the last forms was the brain. Unfortunately, Chaos now had a virtual helmet now. He had a cartilaginous skull that covered the brain at all spots except from behind the eyes and below the base of the skull.

It'd be best to hit it from the underside, where the brain had the widest gap.

Sonic struck Chaos' side, and whipped upwards into Chaos' brain.

Perfect Chaos' head split in red fire, and a roar of pain echoed through the desolate landscape. Super Sonic flew out of the water and landed on his feet on top of a building. His eyes quickly looked for Chaos, and saw him an eighth of a mile away.

Chaos found out that he wasn't alone after that first hit, and was bound determined not to have it happen again. That hit was a power drain on him. He searched for the offender and found Sonic, but instead of his blue, he was a hot orange color, and flying.

Super Sonic charged again, close to the water's surface. Chaos retaliated with purple fire bolts that shot from the spines on his back. Sonic swerved to and fro to avoid being hit; despite being invincible, he could still feel the searing heat as each bolt soared by at blinding speed.

Chaos swiped at Sonic with one of his long watery arms, but Super Sonic was too fast. He ripped into Chaos' flesh and hit the current in the center of the Chaos' body. He rushed upwards and smacked into Chaos' glowing brain in a ball of glowing spines.

Chaos' head blew off with light blue fire; his scream seemed to rip the sky. Chaos' body melted into the flood, and Super Sonic stood nearby, waiting for him to come back up again.

But Chaos didn't come back up. The thought of Chaos gone already appeared, but he only whacked him twice. It took three hits to beat Chaos 0; two wouldn't down Perfect Chaos.

Suddenly, two jaws popped out on either side of him, and with sudden realization, he saw that he was in Perfect Chaos' maw! Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he soared upwards full throttle. He heard the slap of Chaos' jaws close just beneath him. He stopped over 2,000 feet above, and glared down. Perfect Chaos was staring up at him like a crocodile staring up at a baby chick about to fall out of a tree and into the water.

"Jerk!" Sonic shouted down.

Sonic shot horizontally and dove into the more dense buildings. Chaos pursued, mouth open to scoop up Sonic and chew him up into mincemeat.

Super Sonic was waiting. He found one low building that had a radio tower on the top. He got an idea:

He grabbed onto it with both hands and swung around it. His body super-charged worked perfectly with it. He started moving vertically on the pole, still spinning up it and when Chaos got closer, Super Sonic launched himself towards Chaos' neck, yelling as he went.

"TERIA!"

Sonic plunged into Chaos' neck and shot into the brain.

- - - - -

Tails was comforting a half-drowned chao, and watched Perfect Chaos fight Super Sonic. He saw Sonic spin up the tower and shoot right into Chaos' head. Chaos' head burst into white flames.

"Wow! Did you see that?" Tails was talking to anyone who would hear. The chao looked wearyingly in the battle's direction.

Knuckles, despite his leg, was handing up chao through a hole in the roof that they were able to make in the Sunset Resort roof. Tails was comforting the now pearly-white chao that was his by looks only. Tikal was sitting nearby, comforting a crying default-blue-and-yellow chao, and some other chao, different shapes and colors, were lying out, totally winded from their near-death experience.

Suddenly, Knuckles appeared and handed up another chao, a green one with two head spines. It was the one Sonic was raising the few days before.

"I found him hiding on the shelf. He was scared of the water, and quite frankly, I don't blame him right now."

Tails took the chao, and it was shivering and its eyes were wide open in an agony of pure fear. "Don't worry, Dash, everything will be okay…"

A rush of energy and Super Sonic appeared. "Hey, guys."

"Where's Chaos?" Tails asked right away.

"He ducked into the water, and I can't see under there. It'd be suicide to find him under there. Where's Dash?"

Tails held up the green chao to Sonic, who scooped him up. "Man, Chaos nearly killed him." Sonic made a death glare towards where he was before. "I'm gonna give it to him good."

"Be careful, Sonic. We just need him to see the chao," Tikal said from his back.

"Look! The clouds are fading, and the lightning's stopped."

Sonic looked up to see that the sun was breaking through the dark clouds. The lights were refreshing to see. Everyone felt their spirits rise.

"Now we just need to find Chaos and give him a psychology class." Sonic handed Dash back to Tails. "I'll juice right back!" Sonic turned and was gone in a yellow flash.

"He can do it…can he?" Tails said to Tikal.

"Yes…I hope."

- - - - -

"Yo! Chaos! It's getting cold up here!"

Super Sonic was growing agitated at Chaos' lack of attacking.

"Coward." Sonic muttered.

Suddenly, he was blown head over heels as a huge lightning bolt beam torched the area where he stood; he flew a good distance until he screeched to a halt in the air. He looked back to see Perfect Chaos towering above the building he was standing on. He was smacked by the same laser that split the Egg Carrier. He thanks his invincibility for saving him; still, that one hurt.

Sonic turned 'round, a fury rising in his mind and dove towards Chaos with all the speed he could. Perfect Chaos shot red fire bolts, much faster then the purple ones and Sonic got hit a few times. He kept getting hit over and over, and finally ducked to the surface.

The fire bolts changed course and dove right towards Sonic. Super Sonic ducked under water and the bolts hissed as they splashed down into the water, extinguished.

Super Sonic shot forward, under the flood's surface towards Perfect Chaos' body. Even though he couldn't see underneath the water much at all, but he could see a vertical tunnel that rises from the surface and knew that it was Chaos. It looked like an upside tornado, like back in Windy Valley.

He shot up the "tornado" and smacked into the brain.

Boom! A resounding boom rang through the city as did the pain in agony, followed by a roar of green fire. Super Sonic fluttered up and searched for Chaos, looking in all directions, not wanting to be shot down by that lightning bolt beam again.

Chaos rose to his full height a good mile away, in a denser part of the buildings. Sonic shout towards him, intending to leave the speed of sound in the dust.

He shot forward like a lightning bolt, but Chaos wasn't called Perfect Chaos for nothing; he uprooted a nearby building and threw it at Super Sonic.

Sonic just had enough time to see it and to duck it barely, just as a ruined building flew by over his head. Even then he got smacked across the head that sent him spinning.

He knew that he'd hurt a bunch when he de-charged but there was no use thinking about that. Perfect Chaos received four hits. About now, he saw that each fire burst corresponded with the color of each Chaos Emerald. The first was a red one, then a light blue one, then white, then green.

That's it! Each hit Chaos took, he lost power from one Chaos Emerald each time. That meant Chaos must take three more hits to get down now.

Piece of cake.

Unfortunately, it proved to be not the proverbial section of a certain pastry. Chaos proved much more of an opponent. He began changing tactics and his sharp eyesight seemed to keep catching Super Sonic before he could get close enough.

Sonic gave up trying and hid beside a building. This is crazy! Three hits away and he couldn't get within a hundred yards!

- - - - -

"Sonic hit him again, but Perfect Chaos seems to keep dodging him every time!" Tails said.

Knuckles appeared again, dripping wet, carrying one more chao, a pink one. It looked like the one Amy raised. The Echidna gasped, "That's the last one, and my leg is killing me."

Tails counted heads. "Thirteen chao. Do you think that'll be enough?"

"Plenty."

"I hope he'll see these chao and soften his heart," Tikal said, worried.

"I hope Sonic gets going on beating Chaos," Tails said.

A boom, a shriek and a rumbling seemed to answer the question. All looked to see water fall from the sky over a mile away, accompanied by a flash of yellow fire.

"Looks like he heard you, Tails," Knuckles commented. "We better flag down a chopper; I saw a few on the way here. Tails, can you see if you can catch one?"

"Sure," Tails stood up and gave his chao to Knuckles, then remembered something, "Hey Knuckles, doesn't Super form die out after quite a bit of time?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Since the Emeralds were dead, wouldn't they last shorter?"

Knuckles blanched. "Uh oh…"

- - - - -

Super Sonic was able to ambush Perfect Chaos by hiding in a window near the water level and when Chaos passed by, looking for him, he set into a spin-dash and shot through.

Two hits to go and he knew that they won't be easy. Chaos gets trickier each hit.

Then the monster appeared once again only three hundred yards away, roaring as it emerged. Sonic began to hate the very sight of water by now, for he knew it would remind him of Chaos.

He dove forward and began swerving around to avoid what he thought would be inevitable fire bolts, but Chaos had another trick up his sleeves, in the form of waterspouts.

Perfect Chaos threw four whirlwinds made of water at Super Sonic. Sonic of course was not expecting this so was caught on one. It threw him backwards, flipping about like a paper in a strong gust.

"Dang you, Chaos!"

Sonic curled into a stationary spin-dash and shot forward in retaliation, swerving to and fro to avoid the waterspouts. He shot into Chaos' torso and shot into the brain.

A flash of purple fire erupted from Chaos' head and Chaos melted into the ground.

Sonic landed onto a nearby building, and panted. Strange, he didn't remember fatigue at all the last time he went Super. Maybe he just didn't remember.

He looked at himself and saw that he was a little dimmer before, then he remembered that Super form didn't last forever, only Hyper form did.

"Oh, crap! Time's almost up!"

Sonic looked around for any sign of Chaos, and saw he was nowhere near. "Shoot!"

Sonic began whipping around, looking for Chaos, his alarm growing as his yellow-orange was deepening to orange.

Sonic whipped around and found Chaos, over a mile away, leering over a building, a perfect vantage point. Sonic shot forward, moving a little slower then before.

If Sonic de-charged, it would be dangerous. If before, Sonic would fall into the water and likely drown or get shot by Chaos. If after, Chaos would be defeated, but what about after? What if he de-charged while still inside Chaos? Would he still give Chaos the final blow, or would it be just like before?

A half-mile away. Sonic saw part of the Speed Highway ahead, above the water surface. He could pick up some speed with it, maybe.

When he got to the Highway, his feet touched the ground and he ran forward and shot forwards. Chaos shot down fire bolts at him as thick as a huge hailstorm. Sonic's spines faded more, and his speed began to drag. Sonic screamed in desperation and poured out his energy into this last stride.

Only a thousand feet. Five hundred. His spines took on a greenish color. He must not let this happen!

He shot through Chaos' torso, his spines losing their glow. He continued to fly upwards and saw the pink glow of the brain. He steered towards it and smacked into the brain, just as the Chaos energy left his body and his spines faded into blue.

- - - - -

"Right over there, captain!"

"Right, kid."

Tails was guiding a helicopter pilot towards where Perfect Chaos was. While he had said his words, Chaos' head exploded in a deep blue flame, and then his body erupted into a white pillar of fire.

"Whoa, what was that?" Tails said.

"Chaos is defeated," Tikal said quietly, face empty of emotions.

"I didn't think there'd be a firework's display at the end," Knuckles muttered, watching a medic who was dabbing some antiseptic onto the cuts.

"I can't believe how you didn't break you leg under that SUV," the nurse said.

"I'd rather not talk about it. Will it need stitches?"

"Yes, that's a very nasty slice, but it didn't cut an artery. I can do it here; this is a medical helicopter."

"So I gathered." Knuckles peered at all the medical supplies nearby.

They landed on a section of Speed Highway that was still above ground, other then the one where it started. Tails saw a blue body lying face down on a partially submerged area on a ramp below where they stood. Seven glowing gems surrounded him.

Tails gasped. "It's Sonic!"

Tails leapt out before the chopper landed and parachuted down to Sonic's limp body. He grabbed his arms and dragged him to a higher part of the ramp. "Sonic! Please, wake up. You made it through Windy Valley; you can make it."

Tails flipped Sonic around and patted Sonic on the cheeks repeatedly, to wake him.

"Come on, Sonic!"

Tails thought about the pumping he gave Sonic back in Windy Valley, and proceeded to do the same. Sonic was not as drowned as he was back then, but he was close. Tails pumped and pumped and pumped, and then Sonic lurched forward and vomited out the water in his lungs.

Tails was glad and disgusted at Sonic's present consciousness: glad that he was alive, and disgusted at Sonic's reaction.

Sonic lay back and wheezed. "Hey, kid, I guess I did it."

Tails peered at the Emeralds in a circle nearby; they all had their colors. "Chaos is gone, huh?"

"I think. I didn't see him when I blew his head off; I de-charged just then and nearly drowned. I think the Emerald's saved me, despite they nearly killed me."

"How?"

"It was the blue one. Somehow it ended up in my hand and while I was falling, I suddenly changed direction, I think, and instead of the water, I fell onto this ramp. I was over nothing of water, then it changed to this ramp."

"You teleported?"

"I dunno."

There was shouting from the ramp above, and several chao suddenly scampered from the ramp and flew down towards Sonic and Tails.

"What in the world?" Sonic looked up.

Tikal jumped down from above, and walked up to Sonic. "I'm glad you're safe."

"Me too. What was that shouting?"

Tikal stifled a giggle and said, "It was Knuckles. Some lady in a white uniform is tending to his leg, and Knuckles doesn't like it."

"Good ol' Knux, despite witnessing the near end of the world, he hasn't changed a bit."

Tails was gathering up the Emeralds, but couldn't pick up all of them without dropping one or two of them. "Hey, Sonic! Help me out here!"

"Sure thing!"

Sonic helped scoop up the Emeralds, and the highway began to shake.

"Whoa, what is that?" Tails asked.

"Look! The water's flowing out! It's going back into the ocean!"

The water level began to drop; with Perfect Chaos gone, it had nothing to hold it up. Suddenly, a figure rose from the water and stalked onto the ramp.

"Hey, it's Chaos!" Tails pointed, and was ready to run to keep the Emeralds away from him.

Chaos stomped forwards towards Sonic, but stopped when one of the chao, the green one with the head-points, waddled up to Chaos in plain curiosity, chattering as it went.

Chaos heard the chao chatter, looked down and saw the chao. Suddenly, the rest of the chao had glimpsed Chaos and were coming closer to see what this was. Chaos couldn't believe his now-featureless eyes. He thought all of the chao were killed.

"These are the chao you were protecting, long ago…" a voice said, nearby.

Chaos looked up to see Tikal, the only one who she made friends with him. Anyone else who saw him would run away.

"They survived for generations and have lived peacefully with humans and Möbians." Tikal walked closer to Chaos.

They survived? Chaos thought. What a wonder…

"The fighting's over, harmony's restored and life goes on."

Chaos looked at the chao again; for reassurance, he squatted down and petted the nearest chao. Then, they all came up to him begging for a pet and to be picked up. Chaos picked up two of them, and both giggled in his grasp. The cold in his heart melted away, replaced with forgiveness.

"Looks like Chaos changed again..." Sonic said, from the side.

"…yeah, and for the better." Tails finished.

As Chaos was caressing the other chao, Tikal turned to Sonic and Tails. "Thank you so much."

Sonic smiled, as did Tails.

Chaos lifted his head, and looked at Sonic, stood up and bowed to him. Sonic wasn't sure how to react, but his first impulse was to bow in respect. He did.

Chaos lifted his head higher and heard Knuckles' loud protesting up top. He bounded up, followed by Sonic and Tails.

Knuckles only had half of his stitches put in, and was not enjoying it, when Chaos strutted up. Knuckles wasn't sure how to react, but when Chaos saw the nurse trying to stitch up the Echidna's leg (or was for she saw Chaos and fainted), he walked up to Knuckles, saw the blood on Knuckles' leg, and grabbed the knee where the wound was.

It hurt Knuckles at first, but Suddenly, Chaos' hand (the one holding the knee), glowed green and a noise like high-pitched water falling rushed through the air. In a few seconds, Chaos let go, and Knuckles inspected his knee.

"Huh? What have you done?" Knuckles saw no mark or even a scar where the gash was. "It's cured!"

Knuckles leapt up immediately and tested his leg, enjoying the fact that it was cured. He turned to Chaos, and remembering ancient tradition for gratitude, he bowed deeply, and Chaos returned the gesture.

"Whoa, that was cool. Did you see that, Tails?" Sonic said, having witnessed the healing.

"Yeah, that' must be how he helps the chao."

Chaos stalked over towards Tikal, and Tikal looked at the three, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. "I hope we shall see each other again soon. Good-bye!"

Tikal grabbed Chaos' hand, and a ball of light shown between then. It began to grow until it enveloped them both. The three blinked in the sudden light, but it faded as quickly as it came. Chaos and Tikal…disappeared.

"Where do you think they went?" Tails asked.

"Back to the past, I reckon," Knuckles answered. "Hey, look over there!"

Sonic and Tails looked to where Knuckles pointed, and in the distance, a hovercraft was flying away towards the north, towards Mystic Ruins. The design on the hovercraft was unmistakable.

"Eggman!" Tails shouted.

"He made it, through you-know-what?"

Tails shrugged. "Looks like things ARE back to normal again."

The three shared a quick laugh, gathered up the chao and the Chaos Emeralds and they boarded the chopper to East Sapphire City, the part where the water didn't make it.

Chapter 32: The End of All Things

Open your heart, it's gonna be all right…  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was much joy and festivities as the helicopter carrying the chao and the three heroes landed on a hospital helicopter pad. Everyone was cheering as the three stepped out. Sonic had found a medical bag and stuffed the Emeralds into there so they would be easier to carry.

Sonic found Amy there and Amy needless to say, rushed forward and threw her arms about Sonic's neck. Sonic tolerated the welcome, but was blushing nonetheless.

Reporters flooded the area and eagerly wanted to get a scoop on the Super Sonic battle. News helicopters had been watching the actual fight itself, and the reporters inside them wanted the story. Sonic obliged him (it was his turn after all), and Tails slinked away; one of these meeting was enough for him. Knuckles didn't care for crowds of humans, so he followed Tails.

Sonic talked about everything, and Amy, starry-eyed, watched on. In the p

ictures that would appear later, Amy would appear with Sonic, much to her delight.

The next several days were bittersweet. Several families were reunited, but some would be separated forever. Three-fourths of the city was destroyed from Chaos' wrath, and would take a long time to get Sapphire City back to its former glory.

Knuckles went back to the Floating Island, thinking he's been on the mainland long enough. He told the Chaotix about what happened in the city.

Sonic and Tails kept the seven Chaos Emeralds, but Tails graciously used them as a power source for generators and other energy-related needs. He built the converters in a whirlwind, so he could get them to work as soon as possible. The rebuilding needed to get a good start.

Sonic helped out, flying the Tornado back and forth from Santiago City, picking up supplies. He never was part of a rebuilding project, but he had an idea it wouldn't be the last, thinking of the now-empty Robotropolis. Eggman wouldn't be needing it now, so they'd better start tearing it down.

He called in back to Knothole to assure that they were all right; Sally had seen Perfect Chaos destroying Sapphire City, and thought that Sonic was still there.

July turned to August, and August turned into September. Reconstruction was in full swing, and half of the city was cleaned up, and both Egg Carriers, which were deposited into the city from the tsunami, were deconstructed and the metal was used as new building materials when melted down. The weapons were also researched; they all knew Dr. Robotnik was a genius about new weapons, and scientists always were trying to find out about them.

Sonic and Tails were honored at a temporary City Hall (since the other one was destroyed in Station Square) and were rewarded for their valor; Tails for saving the city from a missile attack, and Sonic from Perfect Chaos. Since the city would need the Chaos Emeralds for reconstruction, they needed to keep some of them, but Sonic and Tails were given four of them: red, yellow, blue and white. Two of them, the purple and light blue ones, were stored in the Prison Island underground vaults to be brought out again for emergency. The green one was stored in the underground vault also temporarily until the Federal Reserve Bank was reconstructed.

They also got to keep the chao as a reward. Chao were a novelty in the city, and were considered very valuable, next to the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic and Tails grew homesick of Knothole during the reconstruction, and when they got their gifts from the people of Sapphire City, they thought it was time to leave.

They flew back to Knothole, the chao in the front seat with Tails, as well as three of the Chaos Emeralds (the fourth one if you recall would be in the Tornado's engine compartment), and Sonic was on the saddle-seat near the tail.

"Tails, you gotta expand this thing; this saddle, though not too uncomfortable, gets a little aggravating after a while of sitting on it," Sonic said.

"Sure," Tails was divided to flying the plane and keeping the chao from playing with the controls. One incident that nearly turned disastrous was when Dash was reaching for the lever that transformed the Tornado into the Cyclone, the walker mode. Being almost a thousand feet in the air, a sudden transformation would make a smooth sailing into a solid drop.

A few hours later, they landed near Knothole and received another reception, slightly different then the human one, fewer people for one. They gathered around Sonic and Tails and naturally asked about the adventure and what the heck were the chao.

Tails escaped to his workshop with his chao and the backpack that carried the three Emeralds. He opened the bag and realized that there was only three.

"Oops! I forgot the one in the Tornado. Maybe I should get it…" Tails looked in the bag and saw that the one missing was the red one. "…uh, maybe I'll wait until I find a pair of leather glows."

The chao scampered towards the backpack and peered in. It made a noise like it was amazed and it patted the White Emerald's surface. Tails took the white one and just lay it on the ground so the chao could play with it easier. It smiled with delight and played with it.

"Looks like the white one's your favorite." Tails reached in and took the yellow one. It felt warm, but not blistering hot like the red one, but a welcome warmness, like a heater running on low.

He was admiring its glow, when he heard a voice. "Hey, Tails! Where's my Emerald?"

"Your Emerald?"

"Yeah, you know, the blue one!"

Tails reached in and brought out the Emerald. "Whoa, Sonic, did you leave it in water?"

"No, it feels wet to you too? Strange, isn't it? The red one feels hot, the blue one feels wet. What do the others feel like?" Sonic walked up and took the blue one.

"Well, this yellow one feels warm, not hot, just warm. The white one doesn't feel like much at all."

"Hmm, lemme see…"

Sonic reached down to the White Emerald, but Tails' chao cried out when his hand got close, as if Sonic was going to steal it. Sonic withdrew his hand.

"Impudent chao. He won't let me have the Emerald."

"I thought he was a she."

Sonic looked at Tails, then at the topknot. "You're right; it's a female. I guess we'll find out later how it feels." Sonic looked at the Emeralds. "Is the red one still in the Tornado?"

"Yep. I'm not worried about it blowing up or anything," Tails replied.

"That'd be just our luck now wouldn't it?"

Tails' stomach growled. "Oh, I forgot that it's almost suppertime. Do you know what's for supper, Sonic?"

"Nah, but knowing Antoine, it'll be some formal banquet or something. I just hope the beard doesn't ooze out of the oven again."

Tails stifled a giggle.

- - - - -

Supper was delicious. Antoine whipped together several dishes like beef lasagna, a spinach salad, a sugar-topped cake, and I won't describe others for they'll just make your mouth water in vain.

Sonic pigged out as did Tails, and Dash had trouble using his fork for his hands were still shapeless blobs. He solved this problem by just giving up the fork and practically diving into the lasagna and mauling it. Sonic nearly choked on a piece of cake watching Dash make a mess, finishing the lasagna and eyeing a nearby cake slice.

After supper, and the cleaning up from Dash's little experience in gourmet dining, Sonic and Tails went outside with their chao and were sitting in some lawn chairs, watching the stars come out one by one. Sonic was also fondling the Blue Chaos Emerald.

"Whoa, look! A shooting star!" Tails pointed up at a star that shot across the sky.

"Cool!" Sonic said, looking upwards for more, but after a few minutes, got bored and started looking at the Emerald again.

"What are you doing?" Tails asked finally.

"This Emerald has been doing strange stuff with me and I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe Knuckles will figure it out in those books of his and maybe I'll find out finally. It'd be cool to use this as something else then a power source."

"Yeah…" Tails looked at his chao who was eyeing the sky as if longing to be flying up there.

"Hey, Tails, did you ever find a name for your chao?" Sonic asked, watching the moon rise.

"No, I've been trying to decide, and when I think of a good one but this one keeps doing something to change my mind. He was a blue color before, but now he's white, REAL white."

"You could try Snowball…"

"Nah," Tails said after some thought, then his eyes widened. "Hey, how 'bout Frosty?"

"Frosty? You mean like the topping of the cake before Dash saw it?"

Both laughed and Dash fell asleep in Sonic's arms.

"It fits her. The big head reminds me of Frosty the Snowman. Here that, girl? You are Frosty."

The chao, Frosty, smiled and yawned sleepily.

Tails sat back and Frosty dozed off, tired from the flight back. Tails looked at Sonic, who was still fondling the Emerald. "We had a great adventure, didn't we, Sonic?"

"Yeah, no kidding, little bro…it's been fun." Sonic glanced at his phosphorescent bracelet as it glowed with nearly the same intensity as the Emerald.

"Where do you think Eggman went?" Tails asked.

"Probably back to that base in the Ruins, trying to figure out why he wasn't toast. He should've been, you know. That bolt tore that ship in such a surreal manner that it was a wonder how it happened."

Tails got up, carrying the sleeping Frosty. "I think I'll go to the bed now. See you tomorrow, Sonic."

"Good night, kid."

Tails left Sonic to stare up at the moon, admiring its pale face. This adventure was over, the next one would come up soon, he knew, but it wasn't now. It was now time to sit back and enjoy himself.

THE END


End file.
